Calling it an “incredible opportunity,” former Toronto FC captain Michael Bradley was officially introduced as head coach of the New York Red Bulls on Monday.
Bradley succeeds Sandro Schwarz, who was dismissed Oct. 27 after two seasons on the job.
New York missed the playoffs this year, ending a run of 15 straight trips to the post-season after finishing 10th in the Eastern Conference at 12-15-7. The Red Bulls finished seventh in the East in 2024 and made it all the way to the MLS Cup final, where they lost to the Los Angeles Galaxy.
The 38-year-old Bradley has moved fast since retiring as a player in 2023 after 10 seasons with Toronto. After spending 2024 as an assistant coach at Norway’s Stabaek under his father Bob Bradley, he was named coach of the Red Bulls reserve team in June.
Bradley led the Red Bulls II, who were second in the MLS Next Pro Eastern Conference at 8-2-2 when he took over, to the MLS Next Pro Cup title in November with a penalty shootout win over the Colorado Rapids 2 following a 3-3 draw in extra time.
He was appointed coach of the Red Bulls first team on Dec. 15, joining New York sporting director Julian de Guzman, a former TFC player and Canada captain.
“When I came to the club six months ago, it was in the back of my mind for sure. It was something that I hoped with time to to earn, work for,” Bradley told a news conference Monday at Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, N.J. “I didn’t think it was something that was going to come necessarily this quickly.”
“Like anything in life, you could ask yourself a million questions,” he added. “Is it the right time? Am I ready? What about this? What about that? But certain things come and you’ve got to go for it. This one took me like a half-a-second to basically realize we’re going for this one.”
Bradley, a New Jersey native who won 151 caps for the U.S. from 2006 to 2019, has long-standing ties to the Red Bulls.
The franchise, then known as the MetroStars, selected him 36th overall in the 2004 MLS SuperDraft. At the time, the team was coached by his father.
He went on to play in the Netherlands, Germany, England and Italy, before joining Toronto ahead of the 2104 season. He led TFC to the MLS Cup final in 2016, 2017 and 2019, hoisting the cup in 2017 when Toronto also won the Supporters’ Shield and Canadian Championship.
De Guzman, who played against Bradley internationally, says the former U.S. captain’s work ethic has been hard to miss since joining the Red Bulls. Bradley is the first one in the office and among the last to leave.
“An individual like Michael doesn’t come very often,” he said.
“You realize this guy is here to win … And then everyone feeds off of that, from players to staff. And that creates the culture.
De Guzman and Bradley both said they want much more than just getting the team back to the playoffs.
“We want to be fun, we want to be playing attractive football … We don’t want to just scrape our way into the playoffs and then call it a day,” said de Guzman. “That’s not our standard.”
Bradley said his team will be younger, faster, more athletic and dynamic.
The club has already made changes, parting ways with Lewis Morgan, Carlos Coronel, Peter Stroud, Sean Nealis and Alexander Hack while bringing in Cade Cowell, Nehuen Benedetti and Justin Che.
While Bradley’s coaching resume is short, he was a de-facto coach on field as a player.
With 17 goals in 288 career MLS regular-season appearances, Bradley’s strengths were as a midfielder organizer and leader.
“From a young age I knew that to be at my best, I needed to make sure that everybody around me was at their best … Those thought processes have been going on for a lot of years.”
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 5, 2026.
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
