San Diego Wave is set to hire Jonas Eidevall as its new head coach on a three-year contract, sources briefed on the deal tell The Athletic.
The former Arsenal head coach has been out of work since leaving the north London club in October while the Wave has been without a permanent head coach since Casey Stoney departed midway through the 2024 season. Paul Buckle and then Landon Donovan have been in interim charge since. An official announcement of Eidevall’s appointment is expected in the coming days.
Other NWSL clubs and national teams were interested in Eidevall’s services but the vision of the new ownership as well as the opportunity for growth at the Wave, who consistently led the league in attendance in 2024, appealed to Eidevall. The Wave’s intention to hire Eidevall was first reported by The Equalizer.
In October the Levine Leichtman family became the new owner of the NWSL side after former principal owner Ron Burkle agreed to sell the club at a total valuation of $120 million (£96m), a record sale for an NWSL club.
The Swedish coach left Arsenal after just seven games of the 2024-25 season despite signing a three-year contract with the club in October 2023.
His final game was the 2-1 home defeat by Chelsea, where his side was booed by the Emirates Stadium crowd after going two goals down in the 16th minute.
Eidevall joined Arsenal in 2021, replacing Joe Montemurro. The 41-year-old won the League Cup in 2023 and 2024 but was unable to dislodge Chelsea as the top team in England, with the west London side winning the title in each of his three seasons in charge.
Arsenal finished third in the last two Women’s Super League campaigns, after finishing second in Eidevall’s first season at the helm, and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2022-23.
The Wave finished the 2024 season 10th in the NWSL standings, failing to qualify for the playoffs, and saw Wave and U.S. women’s national team icon Alex Morgan retire.
The club’s president Jill Ellis, the former United States head coach, left her role in December to become chief football officer at FIFA. Ellis, 58, had been Wave’s president since the club joined the NWSL in 2021.
GO DEEPER
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(Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
