Nick Theslof (born December 12, 1975) is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and coach, who was midfield coach and international scout to

Jürgen Klinsmann Jürgen Klinsmann (; born 30 July 1964) is a German professional Association football, football manager and former player. He played for several prominent clubs in Europe including VfB Stuttgart, Inter Milan, AS Monaco FC, Monaco, Tottenham Hot ...

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

. He is currently an assistant coach for LA Galaxy in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

. He was one of the first and youngest American soccer players to have played in continental Europe, joining

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

's youth side in 1991 and playing there for two years. Coming from a sporting family, his grandparents were leading Swedish

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic d ...

Vivi-Anne Hultén and Finnish

Gene Theslof.

Biography

Playing career

Having grown up in a family of renowned skaters, with both his grandparents and parents being skaters, Theslof was exposed to sports being a viable career option from a very early age. While his younger brother Tyler initially chose to become an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as goalie or netminder) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their own team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays ...

(though he later changed to being a soccer midfielder himself, playing for

UC Irvine UC may refer to: Education In the United States * University of California system * University of Charleston, West Virginia * University of Chicago, Illinois * University of Cincinnati, Ohio * Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey (''defunct ...

), Nick was interested in soccer and began playing for the youth

indoor soccer Indoor soccer or arena soccer is a form of five-a-side football, five-a-side or six-a-side version of minifootball. It is derived from association football and adapted to be played in walled hardcourt indoor arenas. It differs from the FIFA, FIFA ...

club, the

Cleveland Crunch The Cleveland Crunch is an American professional indoor soccer club located in Cleveland, Ohio. Formed in 1989 as an expansion team in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), the Crunch played a total of 16 seasons in three separate leagues unde ...

. In 1991, his coach at the club, former English striker Ron Wigg, advised then

head of youth development

Huub Stevens Hubertus Jozef Margaretha "Huub" Stevens (; born 29 November 1953) is a Dutch former professional Manager (association football), football manager and player. Playing career Stevens was born in Sittard. While active, he played for Fortuna Sittar ...

to have a look at Theslof, during a match for which PSV's reserve team had come to Cleveland. Stevens, impressed with Theslof's potential, offered him a youth contract at PSV, which Theslof accepted and moved from his home in Columbus to

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

, the Netherlands. He subsequently played for PSV for the next two years, before his career abruptly ended due to an Achilles injury. He later moved back to the United States and attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, where he later played for their

team, where he was a captain and his performances were lauded. UCLA won the national championship in 1995. On February 1, 1998, the

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew are an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team began play in 1996 as one of the 10 cha ...

selected Theslof in the

1998 MLS College Draft The 1998 Major League Soccer College Draft was held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on January 31 and February 1, 1998. The College Draft was followed by the 1998 MLS Supplemental Draft. Format On Saturday, January 31, 1998, Major League Soccer hel ...

, but he was released during the 1998 season without playing a first team game due to a severe achilles injury. Nick moved to the

Orange County Waves The Orange County Waves was a professional women's soccer team, based in Orange County, California. The team began play in 2011, won the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) National Championship and then folded at the end of its first season. ...

for the 2000-2003

USL A-League The USL First Division (USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the second tier of the United States league system. It was organized by the United Soccer League as its premier league for men from 1996 to 2010, above the USL Second Di ...

seasons where he was head coach and manager. More than 25 players that were trained by Nick at Blue Star ended up being drafted by the MLS or European teams. In 2005 and 2006, Theslof inserted himself into several Blue Star games.

Coaching career

Theslof began his coaching career as Dr. Jay Martin's assistant at

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (abbrevriated OWU) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Ohio Valley, Centra ...

between 1998 and 2000, winning the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

national title in 1998. Following his stay at Ohio Wesleyan, Theslof became head coach of the

Orange County Blue Star Orange County Blue Star was an amateur American soccer team based in Irvine, California. Founded in 1997, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Southwest Division of th ...

, a team of the American Premier Development League and spent time with Juergen Klinsmann who enjoyed Amateur Soccer in Southern California. During that time, he also coached future American national team players

Sacha Kljestan Sacha Bryan Kljestan (; born September 9, 1985) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. He currently is a studio host on MLS Season Pass. Youth and college Kljestan was raised in Huntington Beach, California ...

and

Sal Zizzo Salvatore "Sal" Zizzo Jr. (born April 3, 1987 in San Diego, CA) is an American former professional association football, soccer player who played as a winger (association football), winger or full-back (association football), full-back. Career ...

. In 2004, Theslof coached his old club PSV's youth squad in the Netherlands. After Klinsmann became manager of the Germany national team, he appointed Theslof as coach and scout in 2006 during the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

, where he wrote detailed match summaries and reports for Klinsmann. In February 2008, after he was appointed manager of

, Klinsmann appointed Theslof as a second assistant coach and scout. On April 27, 2009, Klinsmann and his two assistant coaches were released early, even though they had won five of the previous seven league games and were only three points behind league leader VfL Wolfsburg.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Theslof, Nick Living people 1975 births American expatriate men's soccer players American men's soccer players Soccer players from Minnesota University of California, Los Angeles alumni American people of Finnish descent American people of Swedish descent Columbus Crew players UCLA Bruins men's soccer players Orange County Blue Star players FC Bayern Munich non-playing staff American expatriate men's soccer players in Germany Soccer players from Columbus, Ohio USL League Two players A-League (1995–2004) players Columbus Crew draft picks Chivas USA non-playing staff Toronto FC non-playing staff Men's association football midfielders Men's association football forwards Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops men's soccer coaches USL League Two coaches PSV Eindhoven non-playing staff American expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands LA Galaxy non-playing staff 20th-century American sportsmen