Vancouver FC announced on Wednesday that Martin Nash has been appointed the club's head coach on a contract through the end of 2027.
Nash had previously been in charge in an interim head coach role, and has now been given the full-time job after a successful stint in the latter half of 2025.
The 50-year-old former Canadian international took over on an interim basis in Vancouver in late July 2025, and he steered them to a 3-4-6 record in CPL play. However, VFC ended the campaign as one of the league's most in-form teams, going unbeaten in the last six games of the regular season including consecutive draws against the top three sides — Forge FC, Atlético Ottawa and Cavalry FC — to end the year.
Nash was also at the helm for the late stages of Vancouver's remarkable run in the 2025 TELUS Canadian Championship. He led them to an aggregate victory over Atlético Ottawa in the semifinal, making the Eagles the first ever CPL team to qualify for a Canadian Championship final in a full tournament.
Although VFC lost a hard-fought final against the Vancouver Whitecaps, their run still earned them a spot in the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup due to the Whitecaps' qualification via their own league performance.
That competition will begin the 2026 campaign for Vancouver FC, who will take on Liga MX giants Cruz Azul in the first round. The two-legged tie kicks off Wednesday, Feb. 4 (7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET) at Willoughby Community Park, before shifting to Mexico City on Thursday, Feb. 12 (5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET).
"It's exciting for the club," Nash said in a November interview about the prospect of taking VFC into Concacaf. "It's exciting to build a squad knowing that you're going to play at least two really good games in Concacaf, hopefully more. It's nice to get started early, especially for me; it was a short season, so I'm ready to go. It's a short off-season now to build, and we don't want to be too patient, but we've got to have some patience. We can't just rush it and get it wrong, we've got to make sure we get the right pieces involved."
Prior to joining Vancouver FC last year, Nash had significant prior experience in the CPL. He was head coach of York United FC (now Inter Toronto FC) for parts of three seasons, from the beginning of 2022 to May 2024, leading the club to the CPL Playoffs in 2023. Before that, his first head coaching role, Nash was an assistant coach on Tommy Wheeldon Jr.'s staff at Cavalry FC.
He also briefly worked as an assistant with the Canadian men's national team in 2017, and worked under both Marc Dos Santos and Paul Dalglish for former NASL side Ottawa Fury.
As a player, Nash had stints with a variety of clubs across North America, including the Whitecaps and Montreal Impact, as well as in England with Stockport County, Chester City and Macclesfield Town. Nash made 38 appearaces for the Canadian men's national team, and was a member of the side that won the 2000 Concacaf Gold Cup.
Vancouver have begun preseason training ahead of their upcoming Concacaf tie against Cruz Azul, and they have announced a handful of significant roster additions. They revealed at the beginning of January the returns of several key players, and since then have announced a litany of new signings in Morey Doner, Marcello Polisi, Luis Toomey, Tom Field and Mohamed Amissi.
In doing so, the club has strengthened the experience in the group, which Nash hopes will better support the core of young talent in the team.
"The big key for us is to have a good balance between the youth and the experienced players," Nash said. "I didn't feel the group quite had that [last] year in a lot of respects, but it was close. Now if we can just make a little bit better connection between the youth and a better makeup of the squad, it'll bode well on the pitch."
The Concacaf matchup against Cruz Azul will represent the first international competition in VFC's history. Nash, who has a wealth of experience on the international stage, including against Mexican opposition, is all set to lead the Eagles as they embark on a new journey.
