Trading jerseys for whistles, these 2 Sporting KC players are coaching at youth academy
.JPG "Sporting Kansas City midfielder Ilie Sanchez and his teammates are going from one extreme, playing their last match at 8 a.m. Central Time Wednesday, to another: Sunday, they take on Vancouver at 10 p.m. CT.")
Ilie Sanchez is a fan favorite and household name at Children’s Mercy Park.
The defensive midfielder has become a Sporting Kansas City regular since his arrival in 2017, anchoring the defense and midfield through 156 games (and counting) for the Major League Soccer club.
And now, for the first time in his career, Sanchez also finds himself on the opposite side of the white lines ... as a coach. He and SKC teammate Roger Espinoza have joined the Sporting KC Academy as assistant coaches in order to fulfill their “B License” coursework requirements in the U.S. Soccer Coaching Education program.
Sanchez will coach the U-14 team with head coach Declan Jogi, Espinoza the U-13s with Luis Pacheco. And former Sporting KC midfielder Benny Feilhaber was recently appointed as the Sporting KC Academy’s U-17 head coach.
“Honestly, I’ve been trying to join the U.S. Soccer learning site since I got here,” Sanchez said Friday. “They have a big and great team of professionals and instructors that motivate me to join this course and try to learn from them.”
It’s unusual for a player to get started in coaching while still playing, and especially at such a young age (Sanchez is 30). The Spaniard has been integral to Sporting’s push to the top of the Western Conference this year and is far from retirement.
Truth be told, Sanchez isn’t sure his future is in coaching. He’s simply using the opportunity to learn more about the sport he loves.
“I hope that one day I can learn enough to be able to accept a challenge as a coach, but that’s not my focus today,” Sanchez said. “It’s very difficult to imagine myself in 10 days. But I’m putting in little steps and trying to achieve them and be able to grow not just as a player, and maybe not a coach, but I love soccer so I try to learn every day as much as I can.”
Sanchez grew up in Barcelona’s famous La Masia academy before enjoying a successful career in Spain, Germany and now America. But he’s already learning some new tricks as a youth coach.
For starters, he’s found that being a coach is just as stressful as one might expect. Even at the youth level, it’s more than putting 11 players on a field and shouting instructions to them.
“All the concepts that are in a concept itself, it’s what makes this interesting and sometimes stressful,” he said. “You think you know, but then something else shows up and you have to change your ideas and try to learn from the new idea.”
Sporting KC’s pro player pathway — a developmental system that ensures players of all ages play the same style throughout the academy — lends structure to Sanchez’s duties. And coaching hasn’t interfered with Sanchez or Espinoza’s obligations as players.
They attend their own practice in the morning before coaching their respective youth teams in the afternoon. The pair also coach during games their respective youth teams play in KC.
“All I’m trying to do is be present,” Sanchez said. “Try to make them feel as I wanted to feel when I was their age with a professional player joining my training sessions, and try to have a good time learning from them.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Trading jerseys for whistles, these 2 Sporting KC players are coaching at youth academy."