Angel City FC has hired Alexander Straus as the team’s new head coach following an extensive search that sporting director Mark Parsons detailed to ESPN.
Straus is currently in charge of Bayern Munich women, who are positioned to win a third straight league title under the 49-year-old Norwegian’s guidance. He will begin his role the NWSL club on June 1, allowing him to complete the German season first and transition to Los Angeles.
Straus emerged as Angel City’s “preferred candidate” in a process that Parsons felt was comprehensive — until he realized he hadn’t looked at the entire coaching pool.
“One morning I woke up and I said to myself, ‘Have we called the best coaches in the world? And have we thought of everything, have we been creative? Have we thought differently?'” Parsons told ESPN.
“And the answer was, I think we did in the women’s game, but we didn’t in the men’s game. I can’t say who it was, but Mark Wilson got onto one of the biggest men’s coaches in the world within two days and had an interview with him to see if we could attract him to the process. I had a phone call with two other top, top, top coaches on the men’s side.”
Two of those three men’s team coaches were interested in the job, Parsons said, but by that…
