Lafc’s head coach Steve Cherundolo announced today that he would withdraw from his position on the completion of the 2025 mls season.
“It’s an honor to be the LAFC head coach,” said Cherundolo. “After a lot of reflection and discussion with my family, we made the decision that at the end of this year, we will return to Germany. I love Los Angeles and the LAFC, but this decision is in the best interest of my family, even if I am finally far from the pursuit of a team, a city, an organization and a fans staff to make the 2025 season.
Cherundolo, 46, was an unprecedented success with the LAFC since he was hired in January 2022 as the second head coach in the history of the club. Cherundolo became the only MLS coach to win the SHIELD and the MLS Cup of the supporters in his first season as a chief coach when he did it in 2022. He led Lafc to the 2024 American open cup championship and has a sparkling record of 87-43-26 (WLT) with the LVC in all competitions, guiding the club to three main trophies and an appearance in six total fine.
“Steve was a great leader for Lafc and turned out to be one of the best coaches in our league,” said co-president and managing director of theFC John Thorrington. “What he did during his mandate speaks for themselves, and we are extremely grateful to him for his continuous dedication and his hard work. We support his decision to focus on his family with this decision at the end of the season. For the rest of 2025, our objectives have not changed. We remain better at the end of the trophies this season.
During his second season at the helm in 2023, Cherundolo led Lafc to the final of the Concacaf Champions League and the MLS Cup – becoming the only MLS coach to reach the two finals in the same calendar year – and just the third coach of the MLS history to lead a team to the MLS CUP final during his first two seasons as that trainer-chief. CHERINDOLO led Lafc to the number one series of the western conference in 2024 and became the seventh fastest coach to reach 50 regular seasonal victories in the history of MLS when he did in September 2024. The 58 victories of the regular season of Cherundolo since the start of 2022 are the most in this period.
“It was a pleasure to work with and build a solid relationship with Steve in recent years, and I thank him for all that he has given to the club,” said the chief owner of the LAFC, Bennett Rosenthal. “Steve was built on the basics of the black and gold standard, and we wish him success for the rest of this season and in his future efforts. We appreciate and respect Steve’s desire to move with his family at the end of this season. On behalf of myself, Brandon Beck, Larry Berg and our other owners, I can assure you that Steve will always be part of our Lafc family. ”.
The native of San Diego has a file of 58-31-21 in the regular MLS season and is 8-3-1 in the MLS CUP qualifiers.
