Former assistant coach promoted to lead team throughout 2025 WPSL season.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (November 8, 2024) — Chattanooga Football Club announced today the appointment of club legend Juan Hernandez as the new head coach of Chattanooga FC Women. Hernandez was the assistant coach for the team last season and will be at the helm for the 2025 season.
Hernandez is a household name in Chattanooga sports history. He announced his retirement from playing in 2023, and he is Chattanooga Football Club’s all-time assists leader, finishing with 127 matches in eight seasons with CFC. The former midfielder from Madrid, Spain stayed loyal to the club during its transition to the professional game following the 2018 season.
“Juan models and lives the values that are the foundation of all of CFC,” said Sebastian Giraldo, Chattanooga Football Club Technical Director. “As the leader of our girls' academy pathway, we felt Juan was best equipped to vertically integrate our CFC technical framework from our youth to the women's first team. We expect him and his staff to bring in a new era of our women's program focused on facilitating the transition of athletes to the professional game and consistently being in contention for conference and national championships.”
“This is a true honor,” said Hernandez. “This is something that I’ve been working towards, to become a head coach and to improve and gain new challenges. I feel like this will be a really good challenge for my career. I’m thankful to be the person to lead our women’s program.”
Hernandez outlined the playing style that fans and players can expect from him and his staff.
“I coach similarly to how I was as a player. We will have good game intelligence, attacking play, aggressive and direct, but all with intention. I want to be a team that is vertical, that gets in behind defenses, creates chances—all of that with good game intelligence and ideas on how to get in optimal scoring positions. If we are going to press, we will press high. That’s the way my teams play. Everything will be with good control of the ball, with the intention of controlling both aspects of the game.”
Hernandez will continue in his role as CFC Academy Girls Director.
Chattanooga FC Women will return in 2025 with another summer season of play in the WPSL. Keep up to date with CFCW on Instagram @chattanoogafc\women, on X @CFC\Women and at chattanoogafc.com.
About Chattanooga Football ClubChattanooga Football Club was founded in 2009. The CFC Men's team competes in MLS NEXT Pro, while the CFC Women's team competes in the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL). Chattanooga Football Club became the first soccer club to offer true ownership to the fans in 2019 with 3,200+ investors from Chattanooga, all 50 states, and 31 countries. CFC plays all home games at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga.
About the Women's Premier Soccer LeagueThe WPSL completed its 26th season of play as the longest-active women’s soccer league in the United States. Boasting more than 140 clubs nationwide while occupying 32 states coast-to-coast, the WPSL solidifies itself as the largest women’s soccer league in the world. Team rosters feature elite collegiate, post-collegiate, international, and standout prep student-athletes. Many of the United States’ most accomplished women’s national team players have played in the WPSL since its inception in 1998, including household names such as Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Abby Wambach, and Brandi Chastain.
