[Getty Images]Kheredine Idessane - BBC Sport ScotlandWed, December 3, 2025 at 8:08 PM UTC·6 min readThirty seven days after Brendan Rodgers walked out of Celtic Park, Wilfried Nancy has been announced as his permanent successor after a protracted courtship.
The Scottish Premiership side's chief executive Michael Nicholson said they had been "aware" of the Frenchman and the "quality of his work for some time".
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIndeed, he said Nancy was the number one candidate from the outset.
So, how did the relatively-unheralded 48-year-old come to the attention of the Parkhead board?
With the help of the former United States striker Herculez Gomez, who has followed Nancy's rise for broadcaster ESPN in their coverage of Major League Soccer, BBC Scotland has been trying to find out what caught Celtic's eye.
Nancy takes Celtic job and vows 'exciting football'
Latest Celtic news, analysis and fan views
Get Celtic news notifications in the BBC Sport app
'Meteoric rise' for first black manager to win MLS
One of the first things to impress onlookers, apart from Nancy's style of football, is the speed of his rise to prominence.
He landed his first managerial job in 2021, taking over from his friend and former boss Thierry Henry at CF Montreal. Not bad for a man who, just a few short years earlier, was coaching under-14 girls.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt appears Nancy is no stranger to a steep learning curve, as Gomez explains.
"He has an idea of how he wants to play, it's very brave, it's very nuanced," said the American. "It's very New Age, modern football, if you will, but in a crazy, mad scientist way.
"That's who he's been from day one, and it's gone well. I say meteoric rise because 2021 is when he got his first professional stint as a manager, and since then, he's collected a few titles. Canadian Championship, MLS Leagues Cup, MLS Cup."
Born in Le Havre in 1977 to a father from Guadeloupe and a mother from West Africa, Nancy is already something of a trailblazer.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"He was the first black head coach in the history of Major League Soccer to win a title," Gomez explained.
"They'd never had a black coach lift the MLS Cup, and he did it with a certain type of brand, and I guess the best way to describe him is he's brave in his football.
"Speak to his players and they'll say the result is secondary. Secondary because he wants to implement the brand first, and the rest follows."
[BBC]'No surprise' on Celtic's radar
Three things will have attracted Celtic's interest.
Nancy is a proven winner, his teams play fast, attacking football, and he has a very loose connection to the club since his assistant at Columbus Crew, Kwame Ampadu, previously worked with Celtic's director of football operations, Paul Tisdale.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"He's had a few suitors chasing him over the years, in the English game pyramid and in France," Gomez said.
"Celtic is a massive club, a massive brand. Nowhere that he's been, Montreal or Columbus, has he had the wallet that he would have at Celtic.
"So, to pick and choose the elements you want may be beneficial to him, may suit his brand, but it's a culture shock. It's definitely a shock the way he wants to play.
"The first time I saw his team, I was a bit amused. The goalkeeper has to play high off his line, be good with his feet. The centre-backs have to be very good with the ball, often find themselves in advanced positions.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"The wing-backs are very much like we saw in the Xabi Alonso Leverkusen years, where they're going to be prime attackers, and maybe goal scorers and facilitators.
"There's a lot of creativity, free flow."
Comparisons with Champions League winner
WIlfried Nancy won with MLS Cup with Columbus Crew in 2023 [Getty Images]After dropping in the name of Real Madrid coach Alonso, whose superb Bayer Leverkusen side became the first side to win the Bundesliga undefeated, Gomez isn't afraid to compare Nancy to another great of the current European coaching fraternity, Champions League-winning Paris St-Germain head coach Luis Enrique.
"Everybody's looking for the next big thing," he explained. "If I could get somewhere close to his brand, it would be Luis Enrique's PSG.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"Enrique bases his philosophy off the interpretation of space, time and movement. There are no set positions. 'Relacionismo', they say in Spanish. It's how you relate to a certain sector on the field and how you can advance and really consume your opponent in numbers. That's Wilfried Nancy.
"And there's a reason he's garnering attention. It's because his brand is so pleasing to the eye. It's catchy.
"It can also be a Catch-22 every once in a while, because you're playing on the edge. It's a double-sided sword, but certainly he's been on the better side of that sword.
"I see a lot of traits that could make him successful on a bigger stage, with more money, with more attention. He was MLS coach of the year last year but he didn't need the title to be regarded as one of the best. He's immensely respected.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"Certainly the philosophy of, 'this is who we are, this is how we're going to play, and we're not straying from it' is very much Luis Enrique."
History for making instant impact
One thing that could be music to the ears of the Celtic board and supporters is that Nancy, in Gomez's opinion, is comfortable with expectations of quick success.
In other words, Nancy doesn't hang around when it comes to culture change.
"He makes things work relatively fast," Gomez said. "That's worth noting. Oftentimes, it takes coaches some time to implement an identity, a style.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"He's hit the ground running in two different places, whether it's Montreal, a team of lower resources, or Columbus Crew, a team that has been known to let go of the purse strings every once in a while and bring in some good talent.
"He's done well in different settings, so it's worth noting that when you get Wilfried Nancy, you get somebody who's used to making things happen fairly quickly."
Gomez has a simple message for the Celtic diaspora: "Strap yourselves in."
"You're going to get a coach who has an identity and a way of playing that fans relate to, that fans feel proud of," he added.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement"You're getting a coach who knows what he's doing, you're getting a coach who wants to express himself on the field and you're getting a winner.
"That's what Wilfried Nancy has been in his very short, meteoric rise. He's a winner."
