CF Montréal have acted swiftly to find Thierry Henry’s replacement, naming Wilfried Nancy head coach on Monday.
Nancy, a first-team assistant coach since 2016, steps in for Henry, who announced his departure citing family reasons, on Feb. 25.
“We are very happy to announce Wilfried as our head coach today,” CF Montréal sporting director Olivier Renard said in a statement. “After Thierry left, we decided to trust him and give him the opportunity to continue the work we started last season, with the same vision. It is also part of the club’s philosophy to consider and promote our own, as we did in the past for Jules Gueguen (fitness coach) and Maxime Chalier (video analyst).”
Nancy has worked his way up through the CF Montréal system, previously serving as a coach at the club’s academy since its inception in 2011. During that time, he coached the U18 team, from 2011-13, the U21 team in 2014, and the U16 team in 2014 and 2015.
Nancy was moved up to become a first-team assistant coach in 2016.
“I am very happy and proud to take on this new challenge,” Nancy said. “It’s even more special, since it’s with the club I’ve known since I came to Montreal. I would like to thank Joey Saputo, Kevin Gilmore and Olivier Renard. I'm really excited for this challenge and hope to make the team progress as much as possible.”
Born in Toulon, France, Nancy had a 10-year playing career from 1995 to 2005, with Sporting Toulon Var, in Ligue 2, with Raon-L'Étape and Noisy-Le-Sec in National, as well as Beaucaire, Châtellerault and Orléans, in CFA. He was then named MVP of Quebec’s university League with the UQAM Citadins in 2005.
Assistant coaches Kwame Ampadu and Laurent Ciman, as well as goalkeeper coach Rémy Vercoutre and fitness coach Jules Gueguen, complete Nancy’s coaching staff.
