Phillip Dos Santos Joins Danny Dichio's Coaching Staff
USL Detroit City FC

Phillip Dos Santos Joins Danny Dichio's Coaching Staff

Published on January 26, 2026 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Detroit City FC News Release


Phillip Dos Santos with Valour FC
Phillip Dos Santos with Valour FC
(Detroit City FC, Credit: Valour FC)

DETROIT - Today, Detroit City FC has announced that Phillip Dos Santos will join Head Coach Danny Dichio's staff on a two-year deal to be DCFC's new Assistant Head Coach. Dos Santos brings over 10 years of coaching experience to the Detroit City bench.

Dos Santos joins Detroit City FC, having spent the past four years in Manitoba, managing and serving as General Manager of Canadian Premier League side Valour FC. Throughout his seasons with the club, he managed 128 matches, compiling a record of 34 wins, 31 draws, and 63 losses. This past season, Dos Santos led Valour to the Quarter-finals of the Canadian Championship, the premier domestic cup competition in Canadian soccer, where they would fall to eventual champions Vancouver Whitecaps FC 4-3 on aggregate.

Before taking the position in Winnipeg, Dos Santos served as an Assistant Coach for MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps FC under his brother, Head Coach Marc Dos Santos, taking over ahead of the 2019 season. Across his two and a half seasons as an assistant, Dos Santos would see the Whitecaps through to the knockout stage of the MLS is Back Tournament in 2020, falling to Sporting Kansas City on penalties in the Round of 16.

Before joining the MLS bench with his brother, Dos Santos spent four seasons as an assistant with four different clubs. In 2018, Dos Santos served as an assistant coach for USL side Indy Eleven, helping them qualify for the playoffs. Dos Santos spent the 2017 season with NASL side San Francisco Deltas. It would be the club's only season. Dos Santos helped lead the club to the fourth round of the US Open Cup and to the NASL Championship. Dos Santos was the assistant coach for the 2016 Fort Lauderdale Strikers, and before that, he was the assistant coach for the NASL Ottawa Fury, which lost the 2015 Soccer Bowl 3-2 to the New York Cosmos.

Dos Santos was born in Montréal, Québec, but raised in Aveiro, Portugal, after moving there at the age of 10. Dos Santos returned to Canada and earned his Canada Soccer Coaching B Diploma in 2007. Dos Santos would serve on multiple staffs for the youth sides of the Canada men's national soccer team from 2011 through 2014, including many as an assistant coach for the U20 team under former DCFC assistant Nick Dasovic. Dos Santos would lead two youth teams during his time: the U20 team that traveled to Nice, France, for the 2013 Jeux de la Francophonie, and the U18 camp in Guatemala in 2013. Notable players Dos Santos managed in those two camps were Sam Adekugbe (Vancouver Whitecaps), Richie Laryea (Toronto FC), and Maxime Crépeau (Portland Timbers).

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Images from this story

Phillip Dos Santos with Valour FC
Phillip Dos Santos with Valour FC
(Valour FC)		   



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