Utah Royals FC is reportedly turning to a familiar face to be its next head coach
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The second version of Utah Royals FC will reportedly be coached by one of the most notable players from the first version of the team — and one of the most well-known
URFC has a press conference scheduled for Thursday morning to announce its new head coach, but late Wednesday afternoon, ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle reported that Amy Rodriguez is the hire.
Rodriguez, 36, was a mainstay with the United States Women’s National Team from 2005-2015, appearing in two Olympics and two World Cups and scoring 30 goals with 19 assists.
In 2018, Rodriguez joined URFC, as she was part of the FC Kansas City roster that was being relocated to Utah.
Rodriguez was with the club for all three seasons of its initial iteration before going back to Kansas City when URFC was sold to Angie and Chris Long there in 2021.
Rodriguez was eventually traded to the North Carolina Courage, and she ultimately retired from playing.
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In January of 2022, Rodriguez became an assistant coach at USC, her alma mater, and she has been in that role up to now.
While Rodriguez certainly brings great name recognition, her hire is perhaps risky given her lack of experience as either a head coach or as a coach in any capacity on the professional level.
With URFC primed to rejoin the National Women’s Soccer League for the 2024 season, it has a little less than a year to build the first roster that Rodriguez will coach.
“Anytime you step into a role that is above you, there’s definitely way more responsibility that comes with it,” Rodriguez told Carlisle. “There’s an excitement [and] a potential to make something my own and that gets me fired up.
“But I take it with a great amount of responsibility that I’m going to now step into, and I’m going to give it my very best. I think as a player, I always leaned on hard work, and I think similarly in this coaching role, I’ll do the exact same.”
