Welcome New Coach Weiler

New DC United Head Coach Rene Weiler

DC United officially confirmed yesterday (July 16) what had been reported since last week: 51 year old Rene Weiler will be the next head coach of the team. He has signed a contract through 2027. The Switzerland native cannot start work just yet as his work visa is still being processed; Kevin Flanagan will remain interim coach until then.

Rene was born in Winterthur, Switzerland. He had a career as a professional player from 1990 to 2001, playing with Swiss clubs Winterthur, Aarau, Servette and Zurich. He had non-head-coach management positions from 2001 to 2009, at Winterthur, St. Gallen and Grasshopper Zurich (all in Switzerland).

Rene has been head coach for 8 different teams:

1. Schaffhausen (Switzerland, 2009-2011)

2. Aarau (Switzerland, 2011-2014),

3. Nuremberg (German Bundesliga 2, 2014-2016; his teams finished 9th and 3rd)

4. Anderlecht (Belgium, 2016-2017; his team won the First Division title but he was fired the following fall)

5. Luzern (Switzerland, 2018-2019),

6. Al Ahly (Egypt, 2019-2020, where he won the Egyptian Premiere league but left the following fall)

7. Kashima Antlers (Japan, 2021-2022, left in the summer of 2022)

8. Servette (Switzerland, 2023-2024; his team won the Swisss Cup in 2024).

   
   

Weiler stepped down as manager of Servette in June 2024, and has been their sporting director since then.

Weiler has had some good success, and certainly a ton of experience. Interestingly, his last 5 head coaching jobs have only lasted one year. According to Steven Goff of the Washington Post, the hiring was based largely on data analytics. Hopefully there is a positive non-data, human side as well.

Welcome Rene, I hope your visa clears soon.