Oakland Roots announced they’ve hired former Sporting Kansas City II Benny Feilhaber as their new head coach.
“We are excited to have Benny Feilhaber take over through the end of the season,” Oakland Roots President Lindsay Barenz said in a statement. “We believe there is still a lot to fight for this season and we believe we have the players to make a strong run into the playoffs.”
Roots and Barenz note in their press release that Feilhaber has been signed “through the remainder of the 2025 season,” which does not indicate he’s under contract past the conclusion of the league year.
This comes after Gavin Glinton was fired following their 4-2 loss in penalty kicks to AV Alta in the USL Jägermeister Cup and 11 games into his USL Championship campaign. The move for Feilhaber brings Roots its first coach outside of the organization since Juan Guerra in 2022 after promoting Noah Delgado and Glinton from the interim tag.
Feilhaber takes over a squad that sits in 11th place with 10 points in the Western Conference at 3-1-7, but still has hopes of rising up the table. With 19 matches left in the league schedule, the time was now to make a move.
Oakland is three points behind seventh-place Orange County, but has played one more match. To achieve the top-four and a home playoff bid, Roots are seven points back of San Antonio, which they beat 2-1 on May 10. Third-place FC Tulsa also has 17 points, but has a game in hand on Roots.
Feilhaber comes to Oakland with three years of experience as a head coach at Sporting KC II. He made most of his noise on the pitch in a long 16-year career as a former United States National Team midfielder with 44 appearances for the Stars and Stripes.
Feilhaber, 40, was most recently Sporting Kansas City II’s head coach from 2022-2024. He began his coaching career at his alma mater, UCLA, as an assistant in 2020-2021. From there, he joined Sporting KC’s academy and technical staff in 2021.
For his coaching career, Feilhaber established a record of 32-15-33. He has a connection to Roots’ GK Kendall McIntosh during his time at SKCII in 2022 and 2023.
He concluded a 16-year playing career in 2020, but made a brief stop to dust off his cleats at Des Moines Menace of USL League 2 this year. In fact, he played against SKC II in Des Moines’ 2-1 win on March 19 and scored a penalty kick against Union Omaha in their 2-1 loss on April 2.
Feilhaber began his playing career at Hamburger SV II in 2005 before being promoted to the first team in 2006. From there, he signed with Derby County of the EFL Championship from 2007-2008. He played four years on AGF of the Danish Superliga before making his way back to the States with New England Revolution in 2011, making 52 appearances for the Revs.
He bounced around the MLS with LAFC in 2018 and Colorado Rapids in 2019 before signing with SKC the same year. He played his last year in 2020 before his brief stop in 2025 with the Des Moines Menace.
On the United States Men’s National Team, Feilhaber was a member of the team’s active roster in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He was also a member of the United States’ 2009 Confederations Cup 2-nil upset of Spain, where Feilhaber had the hockey assist to Clint Dempsey’s goal to put the game away.
I hate to be pedantic but Derby was in the Premier League, not the EFL, when Feilhaber was there.