St. Louis CITY SC has found its next head coach: former Columbus Crew assistant manager Yoann Damet.
The club has been on a nearly seven-month journey to find a new head coach, following the decision to fire Olof Mellberg in May, when David Critchley was named caretaker manager. Since then, the club has restructured around new sporting director Corey Wray.
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Like Wray, Damet comes to St. Louis by way of the Columbus Crew, where he spent the past three seasons assisting 2024 MLS Coach of the Year Wilfried Nancy. Now, Damet will have the opportunity to define his own philosophy for the first time in his career.
So who is CITY’s new coach? Here are five things to know.
1. Damet began coaching at age 16. A native of Marseille, France, he started his coaching career as a teenager with Beaune FC’s U13 squad. From there, he moved through the French Academy ranks, managing at Jera Sud Foot and Dijon FCO before moving to Montréal and leading the U18 group through the 2017 season.
2. He became interim manager at 29 years old. After Montréal, Damet joined the coaching staff of then USL Championship FC Cincinnati, staying with the club as it made the move to Major League Soccer. That transitional time was not kind to the club, which named Damet interim manager for 15 matches during the club’s inaugural season. It wouldn’t be his only time as interim in Cincinnati; he stepped in for another two matches in 2020, before the league shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. He has MLS Championship pedigree. Following a stint with the LA Galaxy, Damet was recruited to join head coach Wilfried Nancy in Columbus, after the pair spent time together in Montréal’s Academy ranks. It was in Columbus where Damet became a critical piece to an MLS dynasty. During his time in Columbus, the Crew won an MLS Cup in 2023, a Leagues Cup title in 2024, and Nancy won MLS Coach of the Year for the Crew’s performance during the 2024 regular season. Damet played a critical role in that success alongside Nancy, who recently agreed to coach Scottish Premiership club Celtic F.C. The young French manager will now have the opportunity to build his own championship pedigree as he reunites with Wray in the Gateway City.
4. He’s formationally flexible. The biggest takeaway of Damet’s appointment is that he will be able to mold his approach around the CITY SC roster in conjunction with Wray’s vision for the club. In his stint at the helm of LA Galaxy 2, Damet was flexible in his formation, often using a 4-2-3-1 but also experimenting with a back three in a slow, methodical buildup. In Columbus, that three-back formation took on much more urgency, along with a series of intricate passes meant to disorganize opposition defenses. Damet will have to blend those concepts of play into a group that is accustomed to pressing hard and quickly progressing into the attacking third. “On the field, he will build on the club’s intense, high-work-rate identity,” Wray said in a press release, “while adding a more proactive, ball-focused dimension to our style, which will give us the best chance to be consistently competitive and entertain our fans.”
5. He has high standards. Damet was on multiple shortlists across MLS this offseason and was thought to be the favorite to inherit Nancy’s throne in Columbus. While the 35-year-old manager has some first-team experience, clubs see a young, ambitious coach who can communicate with players across generational divides while holding them to high standards. In his initial statement, Damet expressed a desire to build “a high-standard environment that represents the fans and this city.” While Damet doesn’t have a proven track record as a successful manager in MLS, his status has been rising within league circles—something that Wray would have seen firsthand during his time as the assistant GM in Columbus. Those within the league believe he can be a successful manager. Time will tell, but it’s a new era in St. Louis.
