Union manager Jim Curtin’s new contract is finally official

"Jim’s leadership is critical to the team’s success," principal owner Jay Sugarman said in giving Curtin the longest contract of his nine-year tenure as Union manager.

The Union's Jim Curtin is the second longest-tenured manager in Major League Soccer history.Read moreJonathan Tannenwald / Staff

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published July 11, 2023, 10:23 a.m. ET

Jim Curtin’s new contract with the Union finally became official on Tuesday, more than a week after word first got out about it and many months after talks started late last year.

“Jim is one of the top coaches in the league and we’re thrilled to have come to an agreement to extend his leadership with the Union,” Jay Sugarman, the team’s principal owner, said in a statement. “We have set high goals for the club in the coming years and Jim is an essential part of achieving those goals. As we build towards the 2026 World Cup here in Philadelphia, Jim’s leadership is critical to the team’s success and I look forward to watching our players and this team continue to hit new milestones under his direction.”

Curtin’s new deal will run through 2026. The 44-year-old has had the job for nine years, making him the longest-tenured pro sports coach in Philadelphia. The Oreland, Montgomery County, native and product of Villanova University and Bishop McDevitt High is also the second-longest-tenured manager in MLS, trailing only Delran-born Sporting Kansas City boss Peter Vermes.

In those nine years, Curtin has been in charge for 337 games. His all-time record is 147-116-75 in all competitions, including the regular season, playoffs, U.S. Open Cup, and Concacaf Champions League — where the Union have reached the semifinals in both of their entries in the continent’s most prestigious tournament.

“Jim continues to bring this team to new heights year after year, proving himself to be one of the most successful coaches in the league as a two-time coach of the year,” sporting director Ernst Tanner said in a statement. “His commitment and passion for winning, developing our young players, and steadfast loyalty to this club and city speak volumes to who he is as a coach and as a person. His continued leadership will prove to be crucial to our club strategy going forward.”

Along the way, Curtin has guided the Union to their first trophy, the Supporters’ Shield in 2020 for the best regular-season record; and their first championship game, last fall. He won the league’s coach of the year award in both of those seasons. Unfortunately, though, he has lost all four finals in which he has been at the helm: that bitter disappointment in the MLS Cup final, and Open Cup finals in 2014, 2015, and 2018.

“Over the last five years, we’re at the very top in terms of [regular-season] points; we’ve won some things; we’ve had some heartbreaking losses as well, and that’s what motivates coaches,” Curtin said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the team‘s practice facility in Chester.

Curtin’s new contract is the longest he has received in his Union tenure. It’s a long way, in both time and stature, from early on when he got a series of one-year deals. He has become so successful, and so well-known across the sport, that there were serious offers from European clubs last winter. There was also a possibility that he’d leave to become an assistant with the U.S. men’s national team had Jesse Marsch gotten the top job.

“Of course, I aspire to coach in Europe,” Curtin said. “There were moments where, when your agent tells you X team is asking about you, you kind of pinch yourself and go, ‘Wow.’ So yeah, I would love to someday coach in Europe, but that time is not right now.”

Perhaps that time will come after 2026, when his children will be old enough that he’ll feel comfortable moving abroad. Curtin has said many times that is a factor for him. Or perhaps the national team will call then, since Curtin would have four more years of developing the Union’s marquee academy prospects on his resumé. But right now, those possibilities are for down the road.

“There’s been really great, lucrative opportunities that have come up, and it’s not really about the financial side of things,” Curtin said, though it’s surely easier for him to say that now than it used to be. “I have a belief here that we can win. I’ve loved working here from my time in the academy as an assistant coach to now head coach.”

Then again, there is one big way it is about the financial side of things: a commitment from the owner’s suite to keep the wallet open and let Curtin have the players he wants. The big expansion of the Union’s practice facility is great, but it would be nice to think some top players will make use of it — and they don’t ever get cheaper.

“Of course. That’s always part of things,” Curtin said. “You look around MLS, there’s a lot of $8 million wingers that sit on the bench for teams. … You have to be smart in how you do it. And if the time is right, and the player and the fit is right for the Union, I have no doubt that they’re willing to spend for sure.”