Orlando City Announces Manuel Goldberg as New Orlando City B Head Coach

Orlando City announced the new head coach of its reserve team, Orlando City B, this afternoon. The club has promoted assistant coach Manuel Goldberg to the head coach position for the 2024 MLS NEXT Pro season. Goldberg becomes the fourth head coach in the history of OCB and its second coach in the MLS NEXT Pro era, succeeding Martin Perelman, who is now an assistant with the MLS side under Oscar Pareja.

“With the system we’ve set up in the club, promoting from within is always something we strive to do if possible, and with Manu, the choice was clear for us,” Orlando City Vice President of Soccer Operations Ricardo Moreira said in a club press release. “He’s a talented, young coach — the youngest head coach in MLS NEXT Pro history — and he’s constantly connected with the first team and academy coaching staffs, making him the right choice for us in a season where we’ll be focusing on the development of players and promotion to the first team even more than ever. We’re excited to have Manu leading OCB now and we’re excited for all that he’ll accomplish.”

At 30 years old, Goldberg becomes the youngest coach in MLS NEXT Pro history, which dates back to 2022. The previous youngest coach was Brett Uttley, who took over as Austin FC II’s head coach in December 2022 at 32 years old.

Goldberg spent the last two seasons with OCB as an assistant to Perelman. He was a part of the coaching staff that saw four members of the Young Lions sign first-team contracts and qualified for the MLS NEXT Pro playoffs for the first time last season.

His coaching career began in 2015 with Hapoel Katamon in Israel following a three-year professional playing career in that country. He joined Club Nautico Hacoaj in Buenos Aires, Argentina as an assistant coach from 2017 to 2019 before becoming a competitive program coach at Barça Academy PRO Miami. After two years in South Florida, he was hired by Orlando City as Perelman’s first assistant with OCB.

Goldberg has already been hard at work with the Young Lions this preseason, preparing for the upcoming MLS NEXT Pro season. The top of Orlando City’s development academy will begin play Saturday when they take on Atlanta United 2 in Kennesaw, GA.