Denver's 2026 National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) expansion franchise has appointed Curt Johnson as its first general manager. Johnson, formerly of the North Carolina Courage, where he contributed to the team's success, is excited to build a team from a clean slate. He emphasized the importance of hiring key staff, including a head coach and technical director, while maintaining a careful approach to ensure the right person is selected. The team is expected to join the league alongside Boston Legacy FC, increasing participation to 16 teams.
"It's exciting," Johnson told ESPN. "Most of the time as general manager, at least in my experiences, you come into a new job and there are big challenges. There are big, big problems, really. And this is coming in with a clean slate, an opportunity to build from scratch."
Johnson left the North Carolina FC and North Carolina Courage organization in December after 14 years combined with the men's and women's teams. He oversaw the rise of the Courage's NWSL dynasty that included back-to-back NWSL Shields and NWSL Championships in 2018 and 2019.
In terms of timeline, I want to be careful on that, because it's more about getting the right person," Johnson said. "But obviously, the right person needs to have some availability as soon as possible. So, I think we're in the earlier stages of that.
Collection
[
|
...
]