Jim Curtin will become Austin FC’s third head coach after the 2026 season, not before. The club announced the hire on June 8, 2026. He starts on the later of Dec. 1 or the day the 2026 season actually ends. Davy Arnaud stays interim head coach through the rest of this season.
That split is the part that matters on a Saturday in September. Saturday’s match against San Diego is still Arnaud’s team. Curtin does not take the sideline until the season is over.
What Curtin won in Philadelphia
The club said Curtin spent a decade as head coach of the Philadelphia Union. In that time Philadelphia won the 2020 MLS Supporters’ Shield, the 2022 Eastern Conference title, and reached MLS Cup 2022. He was MLS Sigi Schmid Coach of the Year in 2020 and 2022. The club said his 141 regular-season wins rank ninth in MLS history, and that the 2022 Union led the league in both scoring and defense, at 2.1 goals per match and 0.8 conceded.
“I had several other opportunities, both within MLS and abroad, but none of them excited me the way this project did,” Curtin said in the announcement. Owner Anthony Precourt said the immediate aim was still “to climb the standings and establish ourselves as a playoff contender in 2026 with Davy at the helm.”
How the job came open
The club had already parted ways with sporting director Rodolfo Borrell and head coach Nico Estévez, effective immediately, and named Arnaud interim before the May 23 match against St. Louis CITY SC. Precourt said then that the results were not enough for a team the club believed could make the playoffs. The sporting-director search later ended with Khaled El-Ahmad, and the club said Curtin will report to him.
Photo: Subaru Park by Cornflower123, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources: Austin FC, Jim Curtin announcement; MLSSoccer.com, June 8, 2026; Austin FC, Estévez and Borrell.
