CF Montreal has fired head coach Laurent Courtois after a poor begin to the Main League Soccer season.
The membership introduced the transfer Monday, two days after Montreal (0-4-1) misplaced 3-0 at Nashville SC. Assistant coach Marco Donadel will take over on an interim foundation.
“CF Montréal wish to thank Laurent for his contributions to the membership,” the crew mentioned in a quick assertion.
President and chief government officer Gabriel Gervais was scheduled to talk with reporters at Montreal’s coaching advanced Monday afternoon. Courtois is the primary MLS coach to be dismissed this season.
Montreal sits lifeless final within the Japanese Convention with a minus-seven aim differential, the worst within the league. The membership continues to be looking for its first win this 12 months and hasn’t scored since a season-opening 3-2 loss to Atlanta United on Feb. 22.
Montreal, nonetheless, confronted troublesome circumstances with seven consecutive highway video games to start the season. The crew subsequent performs Saturday at Chicago Fireplace, its second-last match earlier than internet hosting Charlotte FC in its house opener April 12.
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Courtois was additionally pressured to area groups with out a number of key gamers. Designated participant Giacomo Vrioni and fellow marquee low season addition Jalen Neal had but to play this season resulting from damage.
The pinnacle teaching place in Montreal has been a revolving door. Courtois was the membership’s tenth head coach because the crew entered MLS in 2012.
He was employed to interchange Hernan Losada on Jan. 9, 2024, by since-departed chief sporting officer Olivier Renard after two seasons as head coach of Columbus Crew 2, the reserve crew of MLS’s Columbus Crew.
Courtois’s first season in Montreal featured a stunning quarterfinal loss to lower-tier Forge FC within the Canadian Championship and an early exit from the Leagues Cup.
However the 46-year-old native of Lyon, France, helped Montreal attain the MLS Japanese Convention wild-card spherical, shedding at house to Atlanta, regardless of having one of many league’s lowest payrolls.
Vital turnover adopted as Montreal restructured its entrance workplace, revamped its teaching workers and mentioned goodbye to a swath of gamers throughout the low season.
When coaching camp opened in January, Gervais mentioned Courtois helped select his new gamers and workers, together with Donadel, a former participant who had interviewed for a training place earlier than Courtois was employed.
Gervais additionally mentioned his expectations of Courtois had elevated heading into his second season.
“He’s bought a 12 months below his belt, he’s bought his fingerprints (on the crew), he understands higher who we wish to be additionally, the way in which we wish to play,” Gervais mentioned on Jan. 10. “I anticipate an enchancment from final 12 months by way of consistency. We have been very inconsistent final 12 months. I anticipate us to be higher defensively as properly and our press needs to be higher.”
Donadel performed as a midfielder for Montreal from 2015 to 2018, registering three targets and 10 assists in 67 MLS video games.
The 41-year-old Italian started his managerial profession with ACF Fiorentina’s youth academy in 2018 and served because the Serie A facet’s first-team assistant coach in 2020 and 2021.
He then joined FC Spartak Moscow of the Russian Premier League as an assistant in December 2021 earlier than working as head coach of Serie C membership US Ancona in 2023.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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