This piece was reported by Staff Writers Jeff Rueter and Sam Stejskal



FC Cincinnati has hired Dutch manager Ron Jans as their new head coach, sources tell The Athletic. Jans is currently waiting for his work visa to be approved, but is expected to take the helm as soon as he receives it.



The hire provides an air of symmetry for the club’s new general manager Gerard Nijkamp. Among his first tasks at his last post with Eredivisie side PEC Zwolle was to hire a new head coach. Jans was his pick. The manager helped Zwolle beat Ajax to win the 2013–14 KNVB Cup in his first year and posted a 39 percent winning record in 159 matches in charge. Jans left Zwolle after the 2016-17 season to serve as FC Groningen’s director of football. He left that position on June 30th.



Nijkamp created a stir earlier in July when he referred to the next FC Cincinnati coach as a “caretaker” for the next 18 months. He later clarified that whoever...