Former Arsenal star Patrick Vieira responds to reports he will be Inter Miami coach
Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas said the team’s inaugural coach has already been selected, will be announced by the first week of December; and reports heated up all over Europe that former Arsenal and French national team captain Patrick Vieira is getting the job.
Vieira, who coaches Nice in the French Ligue 1, shrugged off the rumors.
“At the beginning of the season it was Lyon, today there is Inter Miami and tomorrow it will be Botafogo,” Vieira said Thursday during a news conference. “I don’t know what to say to you. I do my job every day as best I can. After that, you have to ask certain people what happens, but I do not feel in any danger. But, in football, we know that things move very fast.”
Vieira, 43, previously coached New York City FC in 2016 and 2017, so he has experience in Major League Soccer. His record in New York was 39-22-22, and the team reached the playoffs. His Nice team finished seventh in the French league last year, but has dropped to 15th this season. Newspaper reports from England said David Beckham favored Vieira for the job.
Another leading candidate for the Inter Miami job is Marcelo Gallardo of Argentine club River Plate, which lost last weekend to Flamengo in the Copa Libertadores final. Gallardo, 43, is one of the most respected coaches in South America and is drawing interest from European clubs. He represented Argentina in two World Cups, and played for River Plate, Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain, D.C. United and Nacional.
Gallardo was considered a favorite for the job, but Argentina-based Doble Amarilla reported Wednesday that negotiations between Inter Miami and Gallardo broke down over timing. According to that report, Gallardo wanted to wait until late-December to start contract talks and Inter Miami wanted to hire a coach sooner.
Inter Miami will begin training camp in mid-late January and kick off its inaugural season on the road in late February. The team’s first home game is March 14 at 2:30 p.m. against the Los Angeles Galaxy. The game will be played at the new Fort Lauderdale stadium being built at the former Lockhart Stadium site.
The team has signed 15 players so far, the most recent defender Mikey Ambrose, whom the club got from Atlanta United through the MLS Re-Entry Process. Ambrose, 26, spent three years with Atlanta and one with Orlando City. Two high-profile “Designated Players” are expected to be named before the end of the year.
