The New England Revolution will reportedly name Serbian-born tactician Marko Mitrovic, who most recently coached the U.S. to a quarterfinals finish at the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile, as the club’s next and tenth head coach, excluding interim managers.

The Athletic was first to break the news.

A coaching search that began immediately after the Revolution fired former head coach Caleb Porter on Sept. 15 has now yielded the 47-year-old Mitrovic, a former central midfielder who spent the brunt of his playing career in his native Serbia as well as Kazakhstan, Hungary, and Azerbaijan.

Mitrovic shifted to coaching in 2011, serving as an assistant coach for several Serbian club and youth national teams before joining the staff of his compatriot Veljko Paunovic at the Chicago Fire from 2016-19.

Indeed, this will be Mitrovic’s first professional head coaching gig at the club level. In a sense, it is a departure from the norm for Revolution ownership, which hasn’t hired a head coach without at least some playing or full-time coaching experience in Major League Soccer since Frank Stapleton was named inaugural manager in 1996.

The stakes are currently high for the Revolution. Mitrovic will be tasked with taking over a team that fell below expectations in 2025, as the club missed the playoffs for the second straight season with a 9-16-9 record (36 points) and suffered from lapses that caused weeks and sometimes months-long winless runs.

One area of strength for the Revolution is their academy and player pathway, which has produced a number of first team players, some of whom the club has recently transferred overseas for multimillion-dollar fees. It is perhaps here where Mitrovic, whose last three coaching stints were leading the talent-rich U.S. U-19 (2022-23), U-23 (2023-24), and U-20 teams (2024-25) can have the most obvious impact, especially early on.

One of Mitrovic’s players at the 2025 U-20 World Cup was Revolution full back Peyton Miller, who is reportedly garnering immense interest from abroad. Beyond that, Mitrovic needs to get the tactics right with the whole first team — especially senior players. The front office has yet to make any player personnel announcements and has the flexibility to rework the roster, but Mitrovic will still need to demonstrate tactical awareness to get the most out of a talented squad that struggled for consistency and rarely lived up to its potential last year.

Mitrovic‘s approach to the U-20 World Cup could offer some clues. He deployed an attack-minded team that worked up and down the flanks and leveraged multiple strikers, which was the hallmark of what worked for former Revolution head coach/sporting director Bruce Arena during his tenure with the team. Mitrovic was also able to lead the U.S to impressive shutout victories in the tournament, first over France and then Italy.

But the Xs and Os have some time to take shape. Following this announcement, the Revolution will make contract decisions and look ahead to the winter transfer window and the MLS Superdraft before preseason begins in the winter. Mitrovic wasn’t the first name on many pundits’ dance cards — more established names were in the mix for what was one of the most talked about open head coaching positions in the league — but it’s an intriguing one to say the least. For a club looking to raise its first MLS Cup, it’s a bold move that carries lots of possibility, and also some risk.