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Football (Soccer) vocabulary · Club, Coaching & Training

Head coach

Meaning in football (soccer), with examples

/ˌhed ˈkoʊtʃ/nounCore term

In football (soccer), head coach means: The person in charge of training, tactics and team selection; at many clubs the role focuses on coaching, while a sporting director handles transfers.

In Turkish: teknik direktör, baş antrenör

How it is used

Common in continental Europe, in national teams and in the US, and more and more in English clubs. A head coach leads the coaching staff: assistant coaches, a goalkeeper coach and fitness coaches. In Turkish both manager and head coach are usually teknik direktör.

Example sentences

  1. The club appointed a new head coach on a two-year contract.

  2. The head coach wants us to press higher from the first minute.

Common collocations

  • new head coach
  • appoint a head coach
  • interim head coach
  • head coach and staff
  • managerIn British football, the person in charge of the first team who picks the side, decides tactics and often has a say in transfers.
  • training sessionA planned period of practice in which a team works on fitness, technique and tactics under the coaches' guidance.
  • squadAll the players available to a team for a season or a competition, from whom the starting eleven and the substitutes are chosen.
  • formationThe way a team arranges its outfield players on the pitch, written as numbers from defence to attack, such as 4-4-2 or 4-3-3.

More terms: Club, Coaching & Training

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