Bruce Arena has been named as head coach and sporting director of the San Jose Earthquakes on Thursday, marking his return to MLS more than a year after he was placed on administrative leave.
His wide-ranging role in San Jose is similar to his responsibilities at both the LA Galaxy and the New England Revolution, and he takes over for Luchi Gonzalez after his June firing; interim Ian Russell coached the team for the remainder of the season.
The club is entrusting Arena with a massive rebuild ahead of the 2025 season, much needed after an uninspiring 2024 campaign. The Earthquakes were last place in the Western Conference this season, conceding a league-record 78 goals in the process. The Earthquakes have also struggled over the last decade, not making the playoffs in three of their last four seasons and also failing to advance past the first round of the postseason every year since 2012.
Arena is one of MLS' most decorated coaches, having won five MLS Cups between his stints at D.C. United and the LA Galaxy and four Supporters' Shield titles, the most recent of which came in 2021 with the Revolution. However, he has also been out of the picture since July 2023, when the league opened an investigation into him for "inappropriate and insensitive remarks." He was placed on administrative leave in Sept. 2023 and resigned from his job soon after.
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Arena has not delved into specifics over the investigation, though in a recent interview with ESPN said that "it was just staff joking around with each other in private. I accept any of the criticism and I'm moving forward."
In order to take another job in the league, Arena needed to submit a petition to MLS commissioner Don Garber, who appears to have signed off on the coach's return. On an episode of CBS Sports Golazo Network's Kickin' It, Arena claimed that he was cleared by MLS in Dec. 2023 but that the league's "miscommunication" of his status hindered his job prospects.
"I've had conversations," he said. "There was a little miscommunication, I think, in the league about my status. I was cleared in December and no one knew that … I did talk to a couple of teams and I think some information wasn't communicated properly, but we'll leave it at that."
Arena told ESPN he took some corrective actions to move past the incident that led to his suspension, though he did not specifically share what work he did.