Nine months away from the start of their first season, Boston Legacy FC announced its first head coach will be Felipa Patão, formerly in charge of Benfica’s women’s team.
Born in Portugal, Patão took charge at Benfica in December, 2020, after coaching in the club’s youth ranks.
During her time in Lisbon, she went 156-28-15 and won five straight first division titles.
At the continental level, Benfica made it to a Champions League quarterfinal match in 2023-24, and to the second round this season.
In 2024, she was nominated for the Ballon d’Or’s Women’s Coach of the Year award.
“Filipa demonstrates all of the qualities that personify this club and the way we want to play: with passion, grit, and style,” Legacy controlling owner Jennifer Epstein said. “She is a coach who loves to develop players and loves to win, and that attitude is very evident in the way she is approaching our inaugural 2026 season head-on. We can’t wait to watch her build Boston’s next championship team.”
With the Legacy, Patão gets a unique challenge as a first-year head coach. As one of two expansion clubs in the NWLS next season, the team still needs to assemble a roster and an identity, it’ll be a task of literally building from the ground up.
“I’m very excited about going to Boston. I can’t wait to get to the city, meet all the people and start working,” Patão said. “The American league is extremely competitive and that’s one of the reasons I accepted this project: I like competition, difficulty, and getting the players to strive for more and better. To transform themselves and always demand more of themselves.
“I know that Boston fans are passionate about the city and their teams and I’m looking forward to building a new history with them.”
After hiring Patão, the Legacy now have the structure in place to start identifying their roster of the future and preparing for the 2026 NWSL season.
Over the next several months, Patão and general manager Domènec Guasch certainly have their work cut out for them, but so far it sounds like the duo is starting off on the right foot.
“Boston is a club where we want to develop both technical identity and have a clear style of play, but also we want a coach who thinks about more than just winning games,” Guasch said. “Filipa is a coach I believe can help us build a great culture where players understand they will come here to grow and learn.”
