Vancouver Whitecaps keeping coaching cards close to the vest

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The Vancouver Whitecaps are close to getting their guy.

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Yes, again.

The MLS team’s search for a new head coach appeared to be over heading into the Christmas break, but saw their leading candidate finessed away by another team just before the official proceedings were set to begin.

Fast-forward a month, and their quest has once again been narrowed down, but Caps CEO Axel Schuster isn’t ready to make it public just yet.

“I’m very careful, because we had another candidate where I thought we would be very close,” Schuster said Monday. “(It was) not an official offer yet. He said, ‘Look, this looks really good for me, and we should have another meeting and discuss how to proceed. If you’re really up, or if you’re ready to sign, I am up for it.’

“I said, ‘Yeah, give us another one day. I also want to discuss it internally.’ In this one, two days, he got an amazing offer from a top-five league club. So for that reason I’m very careful right now.”

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The timeline and profile seem to match with German coach Steffen Baumgart, who was let go by Bundesliga 2’s Hamburger SV the day before the Caps parted ways with Vanni Sartini in November, and was just hired by Bundesliga side Union Berlin in December. Baumgart was open to an MLS move, having been impressed by the league during a previous visit with FC Köln.

With the search back on, Schuster and Co. whittled it down to three possible choices, with different profiles. A coach with proven success developing youth but hadn’t been a senior team head coach, one with MLS experience, and one with global experience “with a proven track record of making teams better.” None were dissuaded by the team being up for sale, nor the limitation of being only able to bring a single assistant with them.

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“All three have strengths and weaknesses. Obviously, having experience in the league is absolutely a strength, and if you don’t have that, then you need some other strengths, you need support in a different area,” said Schuster. “So every, every profile comes with these pro and cons, and you cannot, unfortunately, combine all of them. All of us who have looked into the profiles, felt like that each profile would be a good fit to us, and would bring in the fresh energy. I don’t think that we’re not yet there that we can go for the one of the top 20 coaches in the world, so probably only those have really no weaknesses.”

That would include Liverpool legend Jurgen Klopp, whom Schuster worked with at Mainz, and confirmed with a laugh that he wasn’t among their list of potential head coaches. But while he’s confident he’ll be able to introduce the new coach in Vancouver before the team leaves for Marbella, Spain, for training camp and pre-season, he won’t say which one.

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“That’s still the plan. There is no Plan B … because I don’t think it’s needed,” he said. “I would say verbally … we have agreed everything. There is one, two little things that have to be solved. I’m careful only because the smallest thing can sometimes create delays or problems. I hope not.”

He also teased the possibility of a new forward signing, a move the Caps desperately need to make before camp. Fafà Picault is now a member of Inter Miami, backup striker Levonte Johnson has signed with the USL’s Colorado Springs Switchbacks and Déiber Caicedo has reportedly been sold to Colombian side Junior for US$1M.

The team is incredibly thin in the forward ranks as a result, as behind Brian White, they only have Damir Kreilach — the 35-year-old who scored two goals in just 465 minutes of 2025 play — and Next Pro player Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau, who saw all of 37 minutes of first-team playing time in 2025.

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Schuster said he expects to make at least two offensive additions to the roster before the European transfer window closes on Monday, Feb. 3, but feels they have the depth around the rest of the roster to be more finical.

“Other than (the offensive moves), we should see how the team looks in pre-season, because in every other position, we are pretty strong. We have, in most positions, more than one candidate,” he said. “We want to bring a lot of young guys to pre-season again, Next Pro players, maybe even an academy kid, our draft picks, and I think other than really offensive pieces, we probably will wait and see also what remains after the European window closes.”

Players report to the University of B.C. on Saturday, and board the plane for Marbella three days later. Ten days after that, they play their first pre-season game, against Polish side Raków Częstochowa on Jan. 24.

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White will miss the first few weeks in Spain, having been called up by the U.S. team for camp and two friendlies against Venezuela (Jan. 18) and Costa Rica (Jan. 22) in Florida.

OTHER NOTABLE DATES

Feb. 8: Return to Vancouver.

Feb. 20: CONCACAF Champions Cup Round 1 first leg at Deportivo Saprissa, 5 p.m. PT.

Feb. 23: MLS season-opener versus Portland Timbers at Providence Park, 1 p.m. PT.

Feb. 27: CONCACAF Champions Cup Round 1 second leg vs. Deportivo Saprissa, 7 p.m. PT.

March 2: MLS home-opener vs. L.A. Galaxy at B.C. Place, 2 p.m.

jadams@postmedia.com

JJ Adams on Bluesky

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