Jim McGuinness has landed his first management gig in football, and has been appointed the head coach of the Charlotte Independence in the second-tier United Soccer League.
This is a first professional solo role for McGuinness, who has previously worked with Celtic and was Roger Schmidt's assistant at Beijing Guoan.
Independence joined the United Soccer League in 2014, and they finished 11th in the league last season.
There was somewhat of an Irish connection at the club last year - Eamon Zayed was among the playing staff, but he has since moved on.
McGuinness told the Irish Times of the challenge ahead of him.
I think I’ve learned a huge amount and tried to be studious in my application from the very first day I walked into Celtic from my experiences of all the managers I worked under.
At the same time I was trying to build a picture in my own mind of how I saw the game and of how I would like the game to be whenever I became a manager. The other side of that coin is that if you leave the philosophical side of things out of it: football is about people and life is about people.
His first game is slated for March, 2019.
[Irish Times]
