Nicolás "Nico" Estévez Martínez (born 29 January 1980) is a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. He is the head coach of

Austin FC Austin FC is an American professional soccer club based in Austin, Texas. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 2018, the club began play in the 2021 season. Their home stadium is Q ...

in the

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

Career

Early career

Born in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, Estévez began his career with the youth categories of local side CF San José, at the age of just 19. In 2004, he was hired by

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

to work in their youth setup. In July 2011, Estévez was appointed manager of newly-created side

Huracán Valencia CF Huracán Valencia Club de Fútbol was a Spanish football team based in Torrent, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 2011, it played in Segunda División B until 2016, when it was dissolved. History Huracán Valencia Club de Fútbol was founde ...

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

. On 1 July 2013, after missing out promotion twice in the play-offs, he announced his departure from the club.

Valencia

On 4 July 2013, Estévez returned to Valencia after being named in charge of the reserves also in the third level. On 16 December, he was named interim manager of Valencia's first team, after

Miroslav Đukić Miroslav Đukić ( sr-cyr, Мирослав Ђукић, ; born 19 February 1966) is a Serbian football manager and former player who played as a sweeper. He spent fourteen years of his professional career in Spain, notably at the service of De ...

was dismissed. He was in charge of the team for two matches, a 1–0

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

home win against

Gimnàstic de Tarragona Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, commonly known as Gimnàstic Tarragona or sometimes just Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team plays in . The club was founded in 1886 an ...

and a 2–3

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

home loss against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

; at the age of 33, he became the second-youngest manager in the history of the club, only behind Óscar Fernández, also an interim. Shortly after, Estévez returned to his previous role with Mestalla after the appointment of

Juan Antonio Pizzi Juan Antonio Pizzi Torroja (, ; born 7 June 1968) is a retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the head coach of the Kuwait national team. Pizzi spent the bulk of his club career in Spain, mainly at Tenerife, ...

. He was sacked by Mestalla on 7 April 2014, after nine winless matches, and was replaced by

Curro Torres Cristóbal Emilio "Curro" Torres Ruiz (born 27 December 1976) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a right-back, currently manager of Estonian club FCI Levadia Tallinn. In his professional career, whose later years were blighted by se ...

Assistant

In September 2014, Estévez moved abroad and joined American side

Columbus Crew SC The Columbus Crew are an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1996 as one of the 10 charter clubs of the league. ...

, as a Director of Methodology. On 6 January 2017, he was promoted to assistant coach of

Gregg Berhalter Gregg Matthew Berhalter (, ; born August 1, 1973) is an American soccer coach and former player. He is the current head coach and director of football for Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire, a role he assumed following the end of the 2024 s ...

in Crew SC's first team. On 16 January 2019, he followed Berhalter to the

United States men's soccer team The United States men's national soccer team (USMNT), officially recognized as USA by FIFA, represents the United States in men's international soccer. The team is governed by the United States Soccer Federation, which is a member of FIFA sinc ...

, again as his assistant.

FC Dallas

On 2 December 2021, Estévez was announced as the new head coach of

side

FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The franchise be ...

. In his first season in charge of the side, he qualified them for the playoffs, finishing third on the Western Conference with 53 points, 20 more than last year; it was the biggest year-over-year improvement in the club's history. On 9 June 2024, Estévez was relieved of his duties as FC Dallas head coach after a 3–8–5 start to the season.

Austin FC

On 25 October 2024, Estévez was hired by Dallas' rivals

as their new head coach for the upcoming season.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Individual

Group 3 Best Coach (Ramón Cobo Award):

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Estevez, Nico 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Valencia Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División B managers Huracán Valencia CF managers Valencia CF managers Columbus Crew non-playing staff FC Dallas head coaches Spanish expatriate football managers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer coaches in the United States Valencia CF Mestalla managers Valencia CF non-playing staff United States men's national soccer team non-playing staff