MLS Head Coach Pascal Jansen Taps Into A Fearless Family Legacy to Shape a Bold New Era at New York City FC
When New York City FC coach Pascal Jansen was 14 years old, he took four, one-hour round-trip bus rides from Zaandam to Amsterdam, unbeknownst to his mother, to try out for the Ajax Youth Academy in 1987.
It wasn’t until Jansen was selected for the Under-14 team that he told his mother of his whereabouts. She didn’t flinch, but approved because Jansen’s dedicated work ethic to his passion was akin to hers.
“One of my inspirations is by my Black, single mother… who had first gone into show business when she was only three to four years old, and made it her way being a successful singer, actress, dancer, and finished up with her own foundation and her own school. So, inspiring and working with athletes is almost similar to what she did when she was still alive.”
Soul singer Sue Chaloner, Jansen’s mother, was one half of the British-Aruban duo “Spooky & Sue” formed in 1974, with “Swinging On A Star” and “You Talk Too Much” being a couple of the group’s best hits. Born in London, in the foster care system, appearing in television commercials as a toddler and training at the Aïda Academy of Arts, Ms. Sue took her talents where she saw fit.
“She trusted me as she trusted herself at a very young age,” Jansen added. “She left her house when she was 16, and I've been outdoors since I can remember, taking care of business myself.”
NYCFC in Clearwater, FL for MLS Pre-Season
It’s the same tone Pascal has struck in his career spanning 32 years in coaching. A former academy player with Ajax, Haarlem, Telstar and AZ Alkmaar, a career-ending knee injury at 19 years old with AZ course-corrected him to coaching, starting at Haarlem in 1993 and making stops in the United Arab Emirates, plus Holland’s Vitesse, Sparta Rotterdam and PSV Eindhoven, all in the name of proving to the Royal Dutch Football Association that he was ready to become one of the youngest in its history to earn the UEFA Pro Licence.
There’s a built-in resilience to obstacles for Jansen along his journey in the global game of soccer. Jansen achieved that feat at 35 years old, in a class with Erik ten Hag and Frank de Boer. Since coming to MLS in January after managing Alkmaar and Hungary’s Ferencvárosi TC, Jansen said he understands the significance of being one of three Black coaches in the league.
But whether you regard that significance or not, Jansen knows City Football Group appointed him to win, and Jansen is focused on doing that his way: “consistently good, occasionally great,” he said.
“I know I’m working in the U.S. now, where the color of your skin is something that is spoken about on a regular basis. And I respect that, but it doesn’t make me do my job differently.”
“I know I'm working in the U.S. now, where the color of your skin is something that is spoken about on a regular basis,” Jansen said. “And I respect that, but it doesn't make me do my job differently.”
NYCFC is 5-4-2 in the first 11 games of the 2025 MLS season. The Boys in Blue are gradually grasping Jansen’s desire for his team to play aggressive, energetic, forward and possession-based soccer. Meanwhile, there’s a player development strategy implemented, customary to the player. What were the impact qualities at the academy or first team level? Does the player have a realistic picture of himself, and is that a realistic picture? Is that picture of whoever Jansen is working with – does that reflect the reality?
“My leadership (style) is based on a holistic approach,” Jansen added. “It's direct, respectful and caring. I use the high standards and high demands principle in my approach. It's ruthless on the content and caring and mindful in the relationships. That's it, basically, in a nutshell, that's my approach.”
Jansen wants a clear picture of the player’s top influencers—first circle (family like parents, siblings), and second circle (agents in pro football)—to shape his communication strategy.
The average age of NYCFC’s squad is 23.9. At least six players are of African descent, and seven players come from European clubs. These demographics fit Jansen’s youth academy background. He was an academy manager at Vitesse (2000-09), Sparta (2009-12), and PSV (2017-18), and he coached PSV’s Under-19 and Under-21 teams between spells (2013-17).
NYCFC Head Coach Pascal Jansen instructing his team.
“Pascal brings a very clear vision and communicates it with real clarity and authority,” said NYCFC goalkeeper Matt Freese. “Pascal speaks in a way that naturally makes you want to follow his lead and he's very culture-driven and expects all of us to put the team above ourselves, which is something I really appreciate, and while he is detailed in this preparation and these expectations, he also gives us the freedom to express ourselves within the structure. He sets and allows us to play the way that we know is best when game time comes. I think there's a real balance between accountability and trust, and that then creates an environment where everyone wants to buy in and continue to grow.”
Not only does his academy coaching inform his coaching style, but also Jansen’s playing days at Ajax give him a unique perspective.
Jansen described those Ajax academy tryouts as “a very selective procedure,” with “thousands of kids” attending open days. He noted the emotional toll of advancing closer to selection, calling it “very confronting” when players are ultimately cut. Jansen said progressing through age groups toward the academy is “a very interesting process” that still informs his coaching today, allowing him to relate to what young players experience.
Jansen has been around sports his entire life. He all but lived outside, whether that be in Holland, with his mother, or his father’s parents in the U.K. His father, Hans, was a Dutch keyboardist for a jazz-rock group called “Spin.”
As a child, when visiting his paternal grandparents in Aylesbury, England — a town split between London and Oxford — Jansen tried his hand at soccer, athletic sprints and bike races against kids from adjacent neighborhoods. It was a typical playground in Buckinghamshire.
That was quite contrary to growing up on the south side of Zaandam, a part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area, in the Poelenburg neighborhood.
“It was in a neighborhood where people from outside the neighborhood would rather not come, if that makes sense.”
Poelenburg is a 30-minute drive north of Amsterdam, and according to AlleCijfers, 63% of residents of this neighborhood trace their origins outside of Europe. While known for its demographic diversity, Poelenburg also has a historical reputation for its social and infrastructural pitfalls: substandard living conditions, neighborhood safety and pollution.
“But we were always outside being competitive, doing all kinds of stuff — of course, sometimes the stuff you'd rather not have done or look back at, but it made (me) who I am.
“But football, for me, made it possible to be with my mates and do the things that we did on the street in our neighborhood, but still keep the focus on what needed to be done.”
Jansen caught himself in mid-conversation, retracting what he originally began to say: that soccer was his savior. It was not. It was, however, and still is, like his mother’s voice, her dancing feet or her theatrical expression.
Jansen said he plans to be the best coach he can ever be, yet emphasized his “satisfaction or discomfort” in becoming the best is not based on the perception of his Blackness.
“I feel very blessed and privileged to be one of the coaches in the MLS, especially where I come from. But one of my goals is to be very successful, obviously with this club and in MLS, but also with the knowledge and the experience that I have from my journey until now, hopefully I can play a part in getting the MLS to the next level.”
“I feel very blessed and privileged to be one of the coaches in the MLS, especially where I come from,” Jansen said. “But one of my goals is to be very successful, obviously with this club and in MLS, but also with the knowledge and the experience that I have from my journey until now, hopefully I can play a part in getting the MLS to the next level.
“I was part of several working groups in Holland to elevate the league and the level of the league,” Jansen continued. “I had the opportunity to step out of the daily routines as a coach and oversee all the areas and see what's going on in the landscape of professional football as a whole — which areas we could benchmark against the top leagues and examples from the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga and others to see what those leagues are doing and at what level are we using this knowledge in our own landscape.
“So, I was brought into a working group with several other coaches or people from different areas in professional football to have these brainstorm sessions. We would bring a few items or topics to the surface and then determine who can help in which area and use their knowledge or getting in contact with people who have more experience or knowledge about certain topics. From there determine what we can use to elevate our own level within our own circle in Holland at the time.
This could be an example of topics in MLS, where the current leadership in MLS is thinking about and trying to elevate to the next level. Bringing it back to myself, my 32 years of professional football experience might be of use to have brainstorm sessions or working groups, to see if I can help in these areas and use my knowledge or experience to bring light to certain topics or areas that we can take to the next level and on to the pitch.”
