“Good morning everyone,” Marc Dos Santos said into the microphone at a press conference in the Field Club at BMO Stadium on Monday, December 15, sharing his first words as LAFC’s new head coach. “Bon dia,” he added in the French of his native Montréal.
The multilingual greeting was fitting for Dos Santos, who was officially introduced as the third head coach in Black & Gold history, the next step in a successful coaching career across multiple continents that has made him fluent in four languages (including Spanish and Portuguese).
Dos Santos, 48, was joined on stage at Monday’s press conference by LAFC Lead Managing Owner Bennett Rosenthal and Co-President and General Manager John Thorrington. Max Bretos emceed the internal promotion of Dos Santos, who had served as an assistant coach for LAFC for the past four seasons (under Steve Cherundolo), helping lead the Black & Gold to three major trophies (2022 MLS Cup, 2022 Supporters’ Shield, 2024 U.S. Open Cup) and two Western Conference titles in that time, and who brings nearly two decades of coaching experience to his new role, with successful tenures in Brazil, Canada, and the United States.
A native of Montréal, Québec, Dos Santos was an assistant coach under Bob Bradley on LAFC’s first coaching staff in 2018, before serving as head coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps from 2019 to 2021. His return to Los Angeles in 2022, to join Cherundolo’s staff, culminated on Monday when he was placed in charge of the only MLS club to finish in the top four of its conference in each of the last four years and reach the conference semifinals in each of those four years as well.
Rosenthal, the club’s Lead Managing Owner, began the proceedings.
BENNETT ROSENTHAL: Thank you all for being here today. On behalf of Larry Berg, Brandon Beck, my fellow managing owners, Peter Guber our executive chairman, along with all of our partners, it’s a privilege to welcome you as we welcome the third head coach in LAFC history. Today is an exciting and meaningful day for our club. As an ownership group we couldn’t be more thrilled to have Marc taking on this role. We are confident that he is the right leader to guide LAFC into this new chapter and help us reach new heights.
From the very beginning of our vision for LAFC, we went beyond just building a winning team. We set out to create a culture. One that reflects the spirit of Los Angeles, our supporters, and the values that define us as a club. Marc embodies that for sure. He’s been part of our story since the early days. He understands what makes this club special, from the standards we hold ourselves to internally, to the passion and energy that The 3252 bring every matchday in the North End. He knows how meaningful the connections with our fans are. And how important it is that our team reflects our community with pride, intensity, and purpose.
As we began the search for our next head coach, through many discussions with John and Marc, it became clear that Marc brings a rare combination: continuity in who we are, paired with fresh ideas and a clear vision for where we can go next. He's committed to an exciting attacking brand of football, one that's aggressive, fearless, and worthy of the atmosphere created at BMO Stadium every time LAFC takes the pitch. Beyond his tactical approach, what has always stood out most to all of us about Marc are his qualities as a person. He leads with integrity and humility, and he's deeply committed to helping players and staff grow, not just as professionals, but as people. This leadership style reflects exactly the kind of culture we believe in. Our expectations, as always, are ambitious. We share those ambitions with our supporters, and we're committed to doing everything we can to deliver a club they remain proud of season after season. We have full confidence that Marc is the right person to bring out the best in this team. Today marks the start of an exciting new chapter for LAFC. And under Marc's leadership, we will continue to uphold and advance the Black & Gold standard with a style of play that excites, inspires, and reflects who we are.
Marc, congratulations. We're thrilled to have you at the helm, and we can't wait for the season ahead.
MAX BRETOS: Thank you, Bennett. Now we're going to hear from the man who has served as the architect for LAFC – responsible for appointing all the coaches in the history of this club and continuing to put a coaching staff and a roster together that is in the hunt for multiple trophies year after year, LAFC's Co-President and General Manager, John Thorrington.
JOHN THORRINGTON: Thank you, Max. And thank you all for being here on this exciting day. We are thrilled to introduce Marc Dos Santos as the third head coach in LAFC history. Marc understands at a deep level what LAFC is about, how we want to play, how we want to compete, and how we want to work together as an organization. Marc was a part of our inaugural staff and he knows this club, and more than just knowing this club, he cares deeply about it. Marc cares how I care, how our supporters care, how our staff cares, and how our players care. He has a deep, deep passion for LAFC. And that connection matters.
What also matters is Marc's conviction. Conviction in his ideas, in his leadership, and in his ability to push this group forward. Marc believes, as Bennett said, in an entertaining, front-foot, aggressive style of football with intensity, and played with purpose. At the same time, Marc brings a collaborative mindset and a clarity of that game model that we believe will bring out the best version of LAFC. He has earned the trust in his time at LAFC of our locker room, from our young emerging players to our most experienced veterans. That belief in Marc is real and that alignment is critical to our future success. This is an important moment for our club. I have never been as confident in the direction we are headed and excited about what is ahead. We are so proud to have Marc leading LAFC into this next chapter of our history. So with that, on behalf of our staff, our executive team, our players, our ownership, it is with great pleasure that I introduce the next head coach of LAFC, Marc Dos Santos.
MARC DOS SANTOS: Good morning everyone. Bon dia. I would like to start by thanking Larry Berg, thanking Bennett, Brandon [Beck], all the ownership group, everybody involved in this process. Thank you for believing in my work and thank you also for all the commitment you put into this club. Also, a special thank you to John and [Technical Director] Neil [McGuiness] for believing in my work and believing in what we do as a staff. I'm really looking forward to embrace this challenge and start this new chapter with LAFC.
Four years ago, when I came back to LAFC I said that I felt like home here, and it couldn't be even more true today. Only because when I arrive at the training facility, the people that I interact with every day, the people from the kitchen, that are cleaning the building, that are involved in the day to day, everyone that works directly in the building is so special that it makes it easier for us to push in one direction and to go towards one goal. Thank you to everyone in the building, not only in training facility, but in the stadium. The people from security, everyone that for the last five years I passed by as an assistant coach, it just makes everything easier with you guys, and thank you very much for your work.
To our fans and The 3252, I don't want to use a cliche here because I hear a lot of people say that they have the best fans in the league. You know, of the 30 teams in MLS, everybody says the same thing. ‘We have the best fans in the league.’ So I don't want to say that. What I do want to say is that you are the heartbeat of the team. You are the heartbeat of the club. From day one, I was able to see as an assistant coach everything that you bring to the club. You're not only a twelfth player, you also play with us. You see it in every game. We actually do play with 12 players. I'm not sure that in the rules it's fair, but the reality is that our responsibility as a staff and what I want to bring into our staff and into our game is that we play at the level and the intensity, with the courage, the noise that The 3252 to play at. And we'll do everything to play at the same beat as our fans. Not easy to follow, but we'll do our best to play at your beat.
And last but not least, to our players, it's so important that our willingness to improve as a team, our willingness to succeed has to be bigger than our willingness to win. If we're able to push in training every day and to be committed to the brand that we want to play, it's going to show in the games, so everything's going to be with them in the training field. I'm really excited to be the next coach at LAFC. C'est un moment très spécial pour moi. (This is a very special moment for me. [French]) Gracias a todos. (Thank you all. [Spanish]). Obrigado a todos. (Thank you all. [Portuguese.]) And I can't wait to see you again. Thank you.
(A question-and-answer session with the media begins at the 14:00-minute mark in the video below.)
