A national sports media outlet has listed former Pacific FC coach Pa鈥慚odou Kah among its five leading candidates to replace John Herdman as Canadian team head coach heading into the 2026 World Cup.
Peter Galindo, writing for Sportsnet, says: “This appointment would be fairly surprising. But [Kah’s] tenure at Pacific was highly successful. The Tridents are the only club not named Forge FC to win the North Star Shield since the [Canadian Premier] league’s inception in 2019. Kah’s high-octane, high-pressing system would make sense for this youthful group of Canadian players, too.”
Added Galindo: “Kah is also similar to Herdman in that he’s a motivational coach and was seen as a father figure to many of Pacific’s players. That ability to manage a specific individual is valuable.”
The 43-year-old Kah, capped 10 times for Norway and with a magnetic personality, is the assistant coach of Charlotte FC in Major League Soccer. He guided PFC to 21 wins, 14 losses and eight draws in his two seasons on the Island, including to the PFC championship in 2021 in being named CPL coach of the year. That season also included Kah’s Tridents taking Toronto FC of MLS to the wire in a 2-1 loss in the Canadian Championship semifinals at BMO Field after upsetting the MLS Vancouver Whitecaps in a galvanizing quarter-final at Starlight Stadium.
Leading Sportsnet’s list to replace Herdman, is CPL Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis, who Galindo says “might be sa国际传媒’s best bet for ticking all of its boxes.” And noting that Smyrniotis produced Canadian team star players Cyle Larin, Tajon Buchanan and Richie Laryea in Hamilton youth soccer: “The fact that Smyrniotis has those relationships among the squad already, coupled with his tactical acumen and knowledge of the Canadian soccer landscape, makes him an ideal candidate.”
The other three possible replacements for Herdman include current interim sa国际传媒 head coach and Herdman’s assistant Mauro Biello, current Panama head coach Thomas Christiansen and current MLS Columbus Crew head coach Wilfried Nancy, the latter a “French speaker and [holder] of a Canadian passport [that] only makes him a more promising candidate.”
Herdman guided sa国际传媒 to its first World Cup appearance, last year at Qatar 2022, since Island players George Pakos, Ian Bridge and Jamie Lowery played in the 1986 World Cup. Herdman left this week to become head coach of Toronto FC in MLS.
