San Diego FC makes it official: Mikey Varas will be club's first head coach

SAN DIEGO — Major League Soccer expansion franchise San Diego FC has been steadily adding players to its inaugural roster from the United States, Mexico, Denmark, Wales and England.

Now it has someone to coach them.

San Diego FC has hired Mikey Varas, who most recently served as interim coach for the U.S. men’s national team, and will formally introduce him at a news conference Tuesday at Snapdragon Stadium.

The 41-year-old Varas is not the big name some may have been expecting — he’s never been a professional head coach — but he fits the club’s unique ethos. He’s young, bilingual, tactically proficient and known for his commitment to youth development.

And he’s hardly a surprise, rumored for weeks as the club’s choice for its first coach.

“The perfect choice,” majority owner Mohamed Mansour said in a news release.

“Mikey embodies the values and ambitions of San Diego FC,” Sporting Director Tyler Heaps said. “His ideas on the game and how it should be played align with ours, and his commitment and energy throughout the process is one that we feel connects with this community and our vision for the club.

“We have big aspirations for SDFC, and we believe Mikey has the right drive, passion, and leadership to help us build a winning culture.”

Varas grew up in the Bay Area, played at the University of San Francisco, then coached at nearby youth clubs. He spent a year with the youth academy of the USL’s Sacramento Republic before joining FC Dallas in a similar capacity in 2017.

The connection was a U.S. Soccer licensing course a few years earlier in Arizona, where Varas was randomly assigned to room with Luchi Gonzalez, who would later become FC Dallas’ head coach.

Varas was elevated to an assistant on the senior team in 2019 and helped lead FC Dallas to back-to-back playoff appearances. From there, he was hired as U.S. under-20 national coach, qualifying for the 2023 U-20 World Cup and advancing out of the first round.

In 2023, Gregg Berhalter added Varas to his staff with the full national team until he was fired in July after a first-round exit in the Copa America. With negotiations still not finalized with replacement Mauricio Pochettino, Varas was named interim coach for two friendlies earlier this month, a 2-1 loss against Canada in Kansas City and a 1-1 tie against New Zealand in Cincinnati.

Heaps knows Varas well. The former worked in the analytics department at U.S. Soccer when the latter was the U-20 coach.

Varas was instrumental in developing several of FC Dallas’ top young talent who advanced to the senior team, and SDFC is hoping to take that model to the next level with its $150 million Right to Dream youth academy it is building on Sycuan land in eastern San Diego. Denmark’s FC Nordsjaelland, the first-division club owned by Right to Dream, has one of the youngest rosters in Europe that is populated with graduates of its Danish academy and plays the same basic tactical system.

“The opportunity to build something special from the ground up, with such ambitious and committed ownership, and in a city with such a passionate fan base, is truly exciting,” Varas said in the club release. “I will give everything to this club and the people of San Diego.”

The next step will be completing the roster ahead of the February launch. MLS is expected to hold its expansion draft in December, where SDFC can select unprotected players from other teams. It will also pick atop at the SuperDraft for younger players turning pro.

Mexican winger Hirving “Chucky” Lozano and the other players it has already signed are all on loan through the end of the year, able to join SDFC for training camp in January.