MLS Charlotte FC

Lattanzio Brings Youth Development, Modern Tactics, and MLS Experience to Charlotte FC

Published on July 13, 2021 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
Charlotte FC News Release


Italian Christian Lattanzio joins Charlotte FC having impressive achievements thus far in his coaching career. He's worked in youth development at Manchester City with some of the top young talents in world soccer, as an assistant to legendary French coach, Patrick Vieira, at New York City FC, and followed him to OGC Nice in France. Lattanzio has also worked with well-respected former-Italian players turned coaches Gianfranco Zola, Fabio Capello, and Euro 2020 winner Roberto Mancini.

Roberto Mancini, who most recently coached Italy to Euro 2020 success, praised Lattanzio, "Christian is, first of all, a very good person. He is very competent about football . He has very good tactical knowledge, really understands sports psychology and knows how to talk to football players. Christian was a very important member of my staff during my time as Manchester City manager."

Mancini was the one who brought Lattanzio to Manchester City as his assistant. While Lattanzio predominately worked with the first team, Lattanzio did also oversee Manchester City's Elite Development Squad, a program designed to produce elite, youth talent. Players such as Jadon Sancho, Phil Phoden, Kieran Trippier, Denis Suarez, and Angeliño. Angeliño would later go on to play at Lattanzio's next stop in his career, New York City FC.

At NYCFC, Lattanzio worked alongside Patrick Vieira in the club's inaugural season with a similar scenario to the one he will be arriving to in Charlotte. NYCFC is owned by the Manchester City group and has a very similar youth system that mirrors Manchester City. One of Lattanzio's responsibilities at NYCFC was to instill Vieira's playing philosophy and tactics into the youth players to prepare them for the first team. Some notable NYCFC academy products that he worked with were Jack Harrison now at Leeds United, Gio Reyna now at Borussia Dortmund, and Joe Scally now at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Lattanzio shared about his time at Manchester City and NYCFC academies, "The lesson I learned is how you can help them make that transition from the second team to the first team... The most important thing is the mentality of the professional player. They need to start getting into that frame of mind, to be really humble, learn on a daily basis, don't think that because you are a good player in the youth system you are done."

Lattanzio will be utilizing his youth expertise upon arrival in Charlotte by working alongside technical director Marc Nicholls, academy manager Dan Lock, and the rest of the technical department in building up  the academies' momentum from a strong inaugural season.

In addition, Lattanzio is well acquainted with working with organizations and coaches that value an attractive style of play. Both Mancini at Manchester City and Vieira at NYCFC had modern, attacking playing philosophies like that of Charlotte FC head coach, Miguel Ramírez. He is well-versed in modern tactics, understands the game at a deep level, and has a good sense of how the different MLS teams like to play.

"I like the fact that there is a lot enthusiasm about sports in North Carolina and in Charlotte... When you mention Charlotte, I think sports, from what I've been told, is the center of the community," added Lattanzio as one of several reasons he's excited for coaching in Charlotte.

With Lattanzio, Charlotte FC is getting an assistant coach that has experience in youth development, attractive, attacking soccer, and MLS. These are all important aspects that will allow him to adopt quickly to Charlotte FC's progressive, ambitious and attacking soccer philosophy for its first team and the academy. The Italian's thorough knowledge of modern, attacking systems and MLS will be critical to Ramírez's first season in the league.

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