In a seismic moment for Austin FC’s present and future, the club announced the firing of head coach Nico Estévez and sporting director Rodolfo Borrell Monday morning.
The moves directly followed a nightmarish week of results for the club, in which ATX suffered a 5-0 drubbing at San Diego FC on May 13, followed by a disappointing 2-1 defeat at home to Sporting Kansas City – the last-place team in the Western Conference – on May 16.
Estévez departs the club after just a season and a half, serving as the second-ever head coach in Austin FC history. Calls for the Spaniard’s job had steadily grown in volume within the ATX fanbase for a month, after the club exited the U.S. Open Cup in its first match, falling to USL Championship club Louisville City FC. Though Estévez guided Austin FC back to the MLS Cup Playoffs in his first season with the club, as well as a U.S. Open Cup final, a record of 3W-5D-6L through the club’s first 14 games of the season proved more than club ownership could stomach.
“Nico has been a trusted ambassador for Austin FC and Austin during his time as head coach,” said club majority owner Anthony Precourt in a press release. “We believe this team can compete for a playoff position, and given our results thus far, a change is necessary to achieve our goals of qualifying for the playoffs this year and becoming a consistent winner in this league.”
More shocking, and arguably more significant to the overall direction of Austin FC, is the dismissal of Borrell. The former Manchester City, Liverpool, and Barcelona assistant coach represented a coup of a hire for Austin FC in the summer of 2023, replacing Claudio Reyna as the head man in the club’s front office. Borrell talked often about overhauling the club’s scouting and youth development programs. Ultimately, though, over three years he proved unable to put together a first-team roster capable of consistently challenging for the top spots in the Western Conference.
Borrell was also credited with the decision of hiring Estévez – recently fired by FC Dallas – ahead of the 2025 season. That decision surprised many in Austin and throughout MLS, especially after Borrell had boasted about the many coaches around the world who had supposedly expressed interest in the role. “Names you wouldn’t believe,” Borrell infamously said.
Estévez proved to be the only coaching hire Borrell got the opportunity to make as sporting director.
“We are grateful to Rodo for his tireless dedication to improving the club,” Precourt said. “Ultimately, we believe this decision is in the best interest of Austin FC. We know that our fans and our community deserve a winner, and our ownership group will continue to make the necessary decisions in order to deliver consistently strong results across competitions.”
Lead assistant coach Davy Arnaud, who has now survived the firings of his last two bosses, remains with the club and will serve as interim head coach for the club’s May 23 match against St. Louis City, just as he did following Josh Wolff’s dismissal in 2024. After the St. Louis road trip, MLS hits pause for two full months for the World Cup break.
As the club release acknowledges, that break “affords the club a natural period to implement a transition and position the organization for success.”
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