Jesse Alan Marsch (born November 8, 1973) is an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

coach and former player who is the current head coach of club

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

. Marsch played 14 seasons as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Cana ...

(MLS) with D.C. United, Chicago Fire, and

Chivas USA Chivas USA (pronounced ''CHEE-vahs'') was an American professional soccer team based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California. The club played from 2005 to 2014 in Major League Soccer (MLS) and was a subsidiary of Mexican club C.D. G ...

, winning three league titles and four U.S. Open Cup titles, as well as earning two caps for the United States national team. In 2010, Marsch retired from his playing career and became a coach, first serving as an assistant with the U.S. national team under

Bob Bradley Robert Frank Bradley (born March 3, 1958) is an American soccer coach who is the head coach and sporting director of Toronto FC. A native of New Jersey and graduate of Princeton University, Bradley coached in the American college game and Maj ...

that reached the last 16 of the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

in South Africa. He then became the inaugural head coach of the Montreal Impact upon its entry to MLS in 2012. In 2015, after a year-long stint as the assistant coach for his alma mater, the

Princeton Tigers The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, three in women's lacrosse, six in m ...

, Marsch was hired as head coach of the

New York Red Bulls The New York Red Bulls are an American professional soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The club was established in October 1994 and be ...

and stayed in the role through the first half of the

2018 MLS season The 2018 Major League Soccer season was the 23rd season of Major League Soccer, top division of soccer in the United States and Canada. The regular season began on March 3, 2018 and concluded on October 28, 2018. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on Oc ...

. In his first year coaching the team, the Red Bulls won the

Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since ...

and Marsch was named

MLS Coach of the Year The Sigi Schmid Coach of the Year Award is given by Major League Soccer to the best coach in any given season. The award has been given since the league's inception in 1996 and is determined by a vote from players, club personnel, and members of th ...

. Marsch holds the record for most wins by a coach in franchise history. In 2018, Marsch was appointed as an assistant coach at German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

club

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red Bul ...

under

Ralf Rangnick Ralf Rangnick (; born 29 June 1958) is a German professional football coach, executive and former player who is currently the manager of the Austria national team. Rangnick began his coaching career in 1983, succeeding his career as a player, a ...

; the team placed third in the league, was runner-up in the

German Cup The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is consider ...

, and competed in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

. The following season, Marsch was appointed the successor to

Marco Rose Marco Rose (born 11 September 1976) is a German professional football manager who is currently the manager of Bundesliga club RB Leipzig, and a former player who was a defender for Lokomotive Leipzig, Hannover 96 and Mainz 05. He coached M ...

as coach of Red Bull Salzburg in the

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. Th ...

; he led the club to a league and

cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cl ...

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

in two consecutive seasons, as Salzburg made successive Champions League group stage appearances for the first time in club history. He returned to RB Leipzig as club coach for the 2021–22 season, leaving by mutual consent in December and joining

in February.

Playing career

College

Marsch played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Ki ...

for

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, where he was an All-American in 1995 after scoring 16 goals as a midfielder and forward.

Professional

Marsch was brought in by D.C. United (their assistant coach was his coach at Princeton,

) in the third round of the 1996 MLS College Draft. Marsch spent the next two seasons with D.C. United, but played in only 15 games. D.C. assistant coach Bob Bradley, named to lead the expansion Chicago Fire, acquired Marsch soon after the

Expansion Draft An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansio ...

in exchange for A. J. Wood and a second-round pick in the 1998 College Draft. Marsch immediately became a regular in Chicago and remained a mainstay in their lineup through 2005. He helped the Fire to the 1998 MLS Cup, giving him three league championships in three seasons. While with Chicago, he also won the U.S. Open Cup in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

. After the 2005 season, Marsch was transferred to

, where Bradley was then coaching. At the time, he left the Fire as the club's all-time leader in regular season games played with 200 (he now sits sixth behind C. J. Brown,

Logan Pause Logan Pause (born August 22, 1981) is an American former soccer player and coach who spent his entire twelve-year professional career with the Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer. Playing career College and amateur After attending Jordan ...

Gonzalo Segares Gonzalo Segares González (born October 13, 1982) is a Costa Rican retired footballer who spent most of his career with Chicago Fire in the Major League Soccer. He currently serves as head coach for the United States U17 national team. Playin ...

Zach Thornton Zach Thornton (born October 10, 1973) is an American former goalkeeper who spent 16 seasons in Major League Soccer with the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (1996–97), Chicago Fire (1998–2006), Colorado Rapids (2007), New York Red Bulls (2008) ...

and

Chris Armas Christopher Armas (born August 27, 1972) is an American professional soccer coach and former player. He is currently sharing interim head coach duties at Leeds United with Michael Skubala and Paco Gallardo after the sacking of Jesse Marsch. ...

). Marsch is one of three players to have played in each of the first 14 seasons of

. On February 5, 2010, he announced his retirement after four seasons with Chivas to enter coaching.

International

Marsch received two caps with the United States national team. His first came as a substitute in a scoreless

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

tie away to

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

on November 11, 2001; the other came on June 2, 2007 in a 4–1 friendly win against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

Coaching career

Early career

Following his retirement, Marsch was hired as an assistant to his former college and club coach Bob Bradley with the United States men's national team. Marsch remained with the U.S. program until Bradley's firing in July 2011. In August 2011, Marsch was unveiled as the first head coach of Major League Soccer expansion franchise Montreal Impact, starting play in 2012. In their first MLS game on March 10, the team lost 2–0 at fellow Canadians

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

. The club finished in 12th place with 42 points. After that one season, Marsch left the club in November 2012. Though team management had been emphatic about their satisfaction with Marsch's work, the differences in coaching philosophies between Marsch and the management of the club led to an "amicable" split.

New York Red Bulls

In January 2015, Marsch was named head coach of

, replacing

Mike Petke Mike Petke (born January 30, 1976) is an American former soccer player and coach who was most recently head coach of Major League Soccer club Real Salt Lake. Prior to his tenure with Real Salt Lake, he was head coach of the New York Red Bulls, l ...

. In his first season at the helm, Marsch led New York to the

MLS Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since ...

and a club record 18 league victories and 60 points and was named the

. After a successful start to his career, the Red Bulls extended his contract in June 2016, offering Marsch a multi-year deal. In January 2017, Marsch was linked to taking over for Óscar García as the manager of Austrian club

FC Red Bull Salzburg FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian professional football club based in Wals-Siezenheim, that competes in the Austrian Bundesliga, the top flight of Austrian Football. Their home ground is the Red Bull Arena. Due to sponsorship restrictions, ...

. However, both New York Red Bulls and Red Bull Salzburg denied the reports. In July 2018, Marsch left the Red Bulls as the coach with the most wins in the club's history, with a record of 75–32–44.

followed as new head coach.

Assistant at RB Leipzig

Marsch became assistant to

head coach

for the 2018–19 season, signing a two-year contract in July 2018. During Marsch's tenure as an assistant for Leipzig, he was tasked with organizing the team's training sessions and preparing them for opponents. Marsch helped lead them to the group stage of the

, where the team finished third in their group and bowed out of the competition. He further helped Rangnick lead the team to third place in the team's Bundesliga campaign, and to the final of the DFB-Pokal before falling to

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

in the final. Marsch ultimately left the team after one season to replace

as coach of Leipzig's sister club Red Bull Salzburg.

Red Bull Salzburg

Marsch was officially presented as head coach of Red Bull Salzburg on June 6, 2019. In his first season in charge, Marsch led Salzburg to winning the double. The team won the

by winning 68.75% of their games; 12 points ahead of second place

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

making Marsch the first American coach to win a top flight league title in Europe. The team also won the

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

5–0 against Austria Lustenau. During the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season, Marsch led Salzburg to their third successive cup win, Marsch's second as coach, in a 3–0 win against

LASK Linzer Athletik-Sport-Klub, commonly known as Linzer ASK () or simply LASK, is an Austrian professional football club, from the Upper-Austrian state capital Linz. It is the oldest football club in that region, and plays in the Austrian Football ...

. Salzburg also won the Bundesliga, making it two doubles in a row.

RB Leipzig

Marsch was announced as the new head coach of RB Leipzig starting from the 2021–22 season, replacing

Julian Nagelsmann Julian Nagelsmann (born 23 July 1987) is a German professional football manager and former football player who is the head coach of Bayern Munich. Prior to managing Bayern, he managed 1899 Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig. Known for his versatility wi ...

. Marsch won his first competitive match as Leipzig head coach 4–0 against

SV Sandhausen Sportverein Sandhausen 1916 e.V., commonly known as simply SV Sandhausen or Sandhausen, is a German association football club that plays in Sandhausen, immediately to the south of Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg. The club's greatest success ...

in the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesliga. It is considered ...

. Leipzig then lost their season's opening

match 1–0 to

Mainz 05 1. Fußball- und Sportverein Mainz 05 e. V., usually shortened to 1. FSV Mainz 05, Mainz 05 () or simply Mainz (), is a German sports club, founded in 1905 and based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. 1. FSV Mainz 05 play in the Bundesliga, the t ...

. Marsch won his first

match against

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB S ...

on matchday two. Under Marsch, Leipzig lost their opening

2021–22 UEFA Champions League The 2021–22 UEFA Champions League was the 67th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 30th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Real Madri ...

fixture 6–3 to

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. On December 5, 2021, Marsch and Leipzig announced that they had mutually agreed to part ways. He finished with a record of seven wins, four draws, and six losses.

Leeds United

On February 28, 2022, Marsch was appointed as head coach of

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

side

and signed a three-year deal following the departure of

Marcelo Bielsa Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera (, nicknamed ''El Loco Bielsa'' , meaning "The Crazy Bielsa"; born 21 July 1955) is an Argentine professional football manager who was most recently the head coach of Premier League club Leeds United. He is a forme ...

. He was the third American national to manage in the Premier League, after

and German-born David Wagner. The British press remarked that Marsch would have to combat prejudiced attitudes toward American soccer coaches. In Marsch's first game as Leeds coach, the team lost 1–0 at

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

on March 5; they won at the third attempt eight days later, 2–1 at home to

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

. On May 22, Marsch guided Leeds to a 2–1 win away at

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings wh ...

to help the club avoid relegation in 17th position; it was the first time since 2011 that a team survived despite being in the relegation zone at the start of the final day.

Personal life

Marsch was born and raised in

Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Racine County, Wisconsin, United States. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River. Racine is situated 22 miles (35 km) south of Milwaukee and approximately 60 ...

, where he attended Jerome I. Case High School. He and his wife Kim have three children – one daughter and two sons. Apart from his native English, Marsch also speaks fluent German which he learned late at 44 years old prior to his move to Austria as Red Bull Salzburg coach as well as his time with RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga.

Coaching statistics

Honors

Player

D.C. United *

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

* U.S. Open Cup:

Chicago Fire *MLS Cup:

*Supporters' Shield:

*U.S. Open Cup:

Coach

New York Red Bulls *Supporters' Shield:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Red Bull Salzburg *

: 2019–20,

Individual *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marsch, Jesse 1973 births Living people Sportspeople from Racine, Wisconsin Soccer players from Wisconsin American soccer players Association football midfielders Princeton Tigers men's soccer players All-American men's college soccer players D.C. United draft picks D.C. United players Chicago Fire FC players Chivas USA players Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars United States men's international soccer players American soccer coaches CF Montréal coaches New York Red Bulls coaches FC Red Bull Salzburg managers RB Leipzig managers Leeds United F.C. managers Austrian Football Bundesliga managers Bundesliga managers Premier League managers American expatriate soccer coaches American expatriate sportspeople in Canada American expatriate sportspeople in Austria American expatriate sportspeople in Germany American expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate soccer managers in Canada Expatriate football managers in Austria Expatriate football managers in Germany Expatriate football managers in England