Curtin rewarded with contract extension
For many reasons, Jim Curtin’s devotion to youth development was never mere lip service. Though he would rarely center himself in the discussion, his trajectory is as good of evidence as any.
Curtin has reflected recently on the start of his coaching career nearly a decade ago. His first blush of success came with a Union youth team, representing its proto-academy, at the 2012 Generation adidas Cup, a team that included Pennsylvania-bred national team stars Christian Pulisic and Zack Steffen.
Without that championship, and without faith being placed in a coach barely a year removed from his playing career, Curtin wouldn’t be where he was on Wednesday: Accepting a contract extension to lead the Philadelphia Union, where faith in youth has become a required – and winning – strategy.
Curtin was granted a two-year contract extension through the end of 2023. Should he see the deal out, it would make 10 seasons at the helm since being hired on an interim basis in the summer of 2014.
Curtin fought off early struggles, mainly caused the organization’s lack of a coherent vision. He’s been in charge under three distinct regimes, from the Nick Sakiewicz era to Earnie Stewart to now Ernst Tanner.
Once the club had its principles in place and the investment, in team facilities and the Union Academy, to back them, Curtin has flourished. The secondlongest tenured manager in MLS has led the Union to the MLS Cup playoffs four of the last five years, apexing in last year’s Supporters’ Shield and the Sigi Schmid Coach of the Year
Award for Curtin.
Despite interest in his services in the offseason, Curtin said, work remains to be done in Chester.
“We still have work to do,” Curtin said via Zoom. “This club continues to grow and grow. We want to reach the ultimate goal for our fans, and that is lifting the MLS Cup.”
“It shows in a way how satisfied and how good we are with his work,” Tanner said. “The success speaks for itself. We won the Supporters Shield with him. We were one of the leading clubs in player development. We were able to sell players. We fulfilled everything within the last two and a half years. It was just logic to do that step, and I’m happy and proud and looking to a bright future together with him.”
Curtin’s early struggles have given way to the Union being one of MLS’s most stable clubs. He has an 88-81-50 record in 219 league games and led the Union to three U.S. Open
Cup finals. Only Peter Vermes, hired during the 2009 season by Sporting Kansas City, has been in his job longer.
The early adversity is integral to Curtin’s improvement.
“Without the struggles, without learning what it’s like to be booed by an entire stadium, at certain moments of it, I think that makes you eager to grow, eager to learn,” Curtin said. “It makes you not want to let people down and it makes you improve, to be honest. Without the hard moments, I don’t think any team or any player or coach individually learns or grows. I wouldn’t give up any of it.”
The past and present lie in Philadelphia for Curtin, a graduate of Bishop McDevitt and Villanova who is raising a family in Philadelphia. The immediate future is aimed at rectifying unfinished business with the Union, namely capturing MLS Cup. He feels he owes it to young players – some of whom he’s known since they were in elementary school – to keep guiding their progress. He feels a kinship with Tanner and Chris Albright, both of whom Curtin revealed have spurned interest to move elsewhere and remain committed to the project with the Union.
Speculation has linked Curtin to a similar trajectory as former New York Red Bulls coach (and his close friend and former teammate) Jesse Marsch, who went from MLS success to climbing the Red Bull chain, first with Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg and now the German Bundesliga’s R.B. Leipzig.
For Curtin, those aspirations remain down the road – and further evidence of his growing profile.
“I never thought for a second when there were a few opportunities in the offseason to go to another club,” he said. “Philadelphia is home for me. I think everybody knows that. I think I’ll know when my time here is done. I think the game tells you that. But right now, it’s telling me and I think we owe it to the fans and some of our new young signings, that there’s still more work to be done here. That’s the biggest thing for this moment.
“Longer term, would I like to coach a national team somewhere in CONCACAF? Would I love the opportunity to coach in Europe? Absolutely. Do I have close ties and connections in Europe with some friends that are having great success there? Of course. So that is a dream someday. We always want to push ourselves and go to the highest level. So I would certainly entertain that, but for the moment, for at least this season and the next two, I want to be here in Philadelphia and I want to lift trophies.”
Like so many of the players he’s mentored, it’s a jump Curtin will make when the time is right.