After a global head coach search, the Portland Thorns remain with their owners.
The Thorns announced Friday that they have hired Rob Gale as the team’s full-time head coach after Gale’s successful tenure as interim coach since mid-April.
“This is a club where we want to be successful, so Rob’s record throughout his career is great, but also beyond,” Thorns general manager Karina LaBlanc told ESPN. “I mean, the players love him, the community loves him, the fans love him, the staff loves him. But at the beginning, I told him, ‘Making this (decision) hard for us.’
Gale did that. He took over a winless Thorn team and has led Portland to an 8-2-2 record since then. The Thorns sit fifth in the National Women’s Soccer League table heading into an extended summer break from the regular season.
LeBlanc said the global search was conducted in conjunction with a prominent talent identification firm that he did not name.
The long list includes a variety of candidates from both the men’s and women’s games. Narrowed down to the final three and again to the final two candidates.
That data — the specifics of which LeBlanc declined to share, citing competitive advantages and other open coaching positions in the NWSL — supports the feeling of those around the club that Gale is the “fit” coach they need.
“I would say, in all fairness, there are things that metrics or data can give a clearer answer to,” LeBlanc said. “And there are things that are subjective, and even in that process, even though we know Rob, he still has to do some tests along the way – situational tests.”
Gale was on vacation with his family in Greece during the NWSL week break when his phone showed a message from LeBlanc saying he wanted Gale to continue full-time.
“It’s exciting; it’s humbling when you know,” Gale told ESPN. Very respectable. It’s a proud moment for me and my family, the people who support me, the people who make sacrifices all their lives for you to do what and to be able to do the job we love, and it’s the reward for that and all the hard work, same with me.”
It has been a year of change for the Thorns on and off the field. The sale of the $63 million team to the Bhathal family, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and her brother, Alex Bahthal, began the ongoing process of uncoupling the Thorns franchise from the Portland Timbers, the MLS club that has owned it since the inauguration of the NWSL. 2013.
Portland started the season with three losses and a draw while conceding 10 goals before former head coach Mike Norris was assigned to the newly created position of technical director.
The Thorns are looking to return to the top of the NWSL after winning the 2022 NWSL Championship, their third league title.
There are bumps in the road. They lost the NWSL Shield on the final day of two consecutive seasons in 2022 and 2023 after entering the final weekend in first place.
Rhian Wilkinson led the team to that 2022 title and resigned a few weeks later following a league investigation into potential relationships with players. Wilkinson was cleared of wrongdoing, but he lost the locker room by his own admission. Norris, who was Wilkinson’s assistant, was hired at the end of 2022 after major player support for the move.
Players want continuity, multiple sources said at the time. Gale was brought on by Norris before the 2023 season as an assistant. Gale later revealed that a few weeks after arriving in Portland, he was diagnosed with throat cancer.
He had arrived in Portland without his family, and he relied on the help of others in more established organizations, including the Norris family, to take care of him during this time, which required surgery on his throat.
He is cancer free and back on the sidelines in 2023.
“It all hit me when I was offered the job,” Gale said this week. “These people really helped me and my family through this and connected us around the world and helped me get back on my feet. This is my opportunity, I hope, to give back to them, to this organization. The Bhathal-Merage family don’t trust me anymore.”
LeBlanc told ESPN that the Thorns’ captaincy, which includes veteran United States center back Becky Sauerbrunn, expressed support for hiring Gale before the final decision.
The next step, Gale said, is about the “natural evolution” of the squad to “continue to be younger and hungrier.”
He hopes to add sophistication to a talented Thorns squad in the fast-growing NWSL.
They will do so with the support of a new ownership group that has committed, among other things, to building its own training facility team.
“The cast was incredible,” Gale said. “The staff has been fantastic for me. The fans have been very nice and supportive and interact with me, which has advantages from that, but you also have to make sure that the vision and the vision of the Bhathal family for the brand and the goals and objectives that will be aligned is the process of marrying each day and try to think ahead and see where the team’s tactical and technical evolution can continue.
