The blog and local media sat down with Oakland Roots director of soccer Nana Attakora for Media Day ahead of the club’s 2026 campaign. Provided is a transcript of everything Attakora said.
Q: You’ve been here since the very beginning. Speak to the vision of the club and how you’ve seen it elevate
Attakora: “Being with the club for, what, six years now, it’s been great to see the growth. One thing that the club has done an incredibly great job at is the accountability piece and learning from our mistakes in the past.
Obviously, getting Ryan Martin, the staff we’ve assembled this year, has been probably the highlight of the offseason. I would say it’s a credit to the ownership group learning from our mistakes. Obviously, our vision is grand, right? In order to do grand things, you need real top people in those roles. So, getting Ryan Martin has been an incredible help with the roster building and the culture building. But it’s just a different feeling, a different vibe, for sure, in 2026.”
Q: Elaborate on the culture and vision of the team
Attakora: “One thing we emphasized this offseason was the character of the player. At the USL level, talent-wise, players are going to be in and around the same caliber. But one thing we felt we could do a much better job this year was diving deep with the character.
“Ryan and I spent a lot of time this offseason meeting with players, agents, previous coaches, and anybody who could give us any type of detail on the player. We definitely wanted to make sure we had a group that was hardworking and just willing to suffer. This league is not easy to play in, so the character piece was important and how you are when things don’t go well.
“These are questions people rarely ask, but we spent a lot of time this offseason, meeting with players and just diving deep into the character of the player.”
Q: What are some of the difficulties and dangers of putting together a roster?
Attakora: “It’s making sure that everybody’s bought into the process. We can’t go get players that think they’re bigger than the team and bigger than the organization. This is no knock on anybody in the past, but getting a group that’s completely bought in, players that are friends and like each other off the field is massive.
“What we’re trying to do, if you look at the way we built a roster, a lot of our players are in and around the same age group. They have a lot of similarities, a lot of things that they like together as a collective. So we focused a lot of our time on making sure that anyone we brought in was for the group, for the community, and definitely didn’t think they’re bigger than the organization.”
Q: Explain the structure of the technical committee
Attakora: “We have a technical committee with a few different people on it, including myself, Ryan [Martin], Eric Yamamoto our VP of football, Lindsay [Barenz] our president, Dustin Cleaver our general manager, and Barney [Schauble] our majority owner.
“And on that committee is where we do a lot of our discussions and everything gets brought up, from players we bring in, to tactics, to how we’re just going to handle the next month. Everything is discussed at that committee, and in that committee is where a lot of our decisions are made. Not one voice is more powerful than another, but it’s a collective.”
Q: What changes do you want going into Year 2 at the Coliseum?
Attakora: “A whole lot more wins, that’s for sure in Year 2. The Coliseum is such a historic venue. One thing we preach to our players is, you’re not just playing on any field, there’s history here.
“There’s a history of championships, and our goal is to just get as many wins as possible and bring a championship to Oakland. It’s actually very simple; win games. When we’re at home, let’s feed off the crowd, the community, the energy that everybody brings, and let’s just put on a performance that the community will be proud of.
“I think last year, we definitely failed in this aspect. Again, credit to our ownership to get such a grand venue, but we have to do a better job on our side to make sure we pick up results at home.”
Q: How have the vibes been this offseason?
Attakora: “The vibes have been great, definitely great. We had months to prepare for 2026. We’ve had a complete shake up with how we do things here at Roots, complete new leadership with [general manager] Dustin [Cleaver] coming in.
“We’re just trying to keep positive at the end of the day, winning is what matters here. We aren’t naive. It will be a process. I think that’s something that all of us here have understood. We are very happy with what we’ve done in this winter transfer window, but at the same time, we still have a lot more to do. But sitting here, I’m very confident in the group we’ve assembled to start the season, but we’re not done.
“We’re going to continue to make moves. We’re going to continue to build toward the end goal of trophies. We’re going to do whatever we need to do to get there. We know we still have a lot of moves to make improving certain roles. But you know, in our first year rebuild, we’re very happy with the work we’ve done. So the vibes are very high.”
Q: How different is this year’s team to previous ones?
Attakora: “A lot of people focus on just the on-field product. Like I said a moment ago, we have new leadership in the whole department. So it’s just a whole new way of doing things, from how we operate on a daily basis, the operation side of things with Dustin [Cleaver] coming in has taken massive change. I think Dustin is probably one of the best in his role in the industry.
“On the field, we brought in new players. We’ve gotten younger in certain roles. But again, it’s going to be a process. I do want to emphasize that we brought in players this offseason that we’re very happy with and very confident in. But the summer is right around the corner, and we’re planning to be ready for what we’re going to do in the summer.
“So, we do have a vision of how we want this to look long term. Ryan is obviously a new coach, and he has a completely different way of doing things, so we’ve got to give Ryan time. The staff will need time to implement their vision. Ryan’s come in with an agenda. We’re all on board with what he’s looking to do. He’s someone that we trust, so it’s about giving the staff time and then remaining confident in our process. This is where the players Ryan brought in from Loudon are so are massive for us [Florian Valot, Tommy McCabe, Keegan Tingey].
“You got three experienced players who know how Ryan likes to operate, and they could come in and help with the players. Ryan has done a great job with his staff. The staff was another heavy emphasis this off season, but having guys like Flo, Tommy, Keegan come in and bring that culture was massive. It’s helped us kind of expedite our process. We think they’re gonna do a great job getting the players on board. And like I said, once the summer comes and the winter window closes, we’ll continue to add to those type of players.”
Q: What assurances did Ryan Martin need to accept the job?
Attakora: “Ryan is a type of coach that just wanted to hear about some of our mistakes in the past and how transparent we could be. Ryan’s very easy to work with, and transparency is huge for him. I think that’s where the staff that we had in place from last season has definitely helped. I said this a moment ago, but you need time. It’s very hard to build when you’re consistently changing.
“It started last year. We had numerous months to build up into hiring Ryan, but just having transparent conversations on what we need to build the best roster possible, and just giving the coach time to assemble his vision, his players, all that stuff. Transparent conversations was the key part.
Q: Talk about your journey from player to executive
Attakora: “From my career, although I signed my first professional contract at 17, I was in and around high, performance football from 14. I had great mentors, whether it’s Todd Donovan, who I played with in Toronto, Julian De Guzman, who is Head of Sport now for New York Red Bulls, even Pa [Modou-Kah] the head coach of Phoenix. I’ve had great people to guide me along the way, which is why I’m so big on mentorship when it comes to our players.
“These are guys, that when things got tough, they were able to pull me aside and really walk me through, not just football, but what life is. I think I bring a lot of those qualities to my role. You look at what Todd’s doing; these are people that if I have questions, I’m able to pick up the phone and ask them how they would through this circumstance.
“I would say, my community and my team, has been massive for my development, and just having them for the past 15-20 years has helped. This is two decades of real leadership. Those people I give a lot of credit to for where I am today.”
Q: You said that you guys were expecting to add some more. What areas do you think could get some boosting or what areas are you expecting to look at?
Attakora: “I would love to tell you we could add in every position. But I think the positions that we plan on adding before the start of the season is in the attack.
“I’m very happy with the work that Ryan and the staff did on the back end of the field, the defensive aspect. We leaked a lot of goals last year in ways that, complete transparency, was unacceptable. We spent a lot of time this offseason making sure we got younger and more dynamic at the back, but I think we can add a piece or two going forward, especially out wide on the wings.
“We’ve been doing a lot of homework, and I think in the next, week or two, could probably announce a few additions to the team, especially for the younger players.”
Q: Speak to the growth and ambition of players you’re bringing in
Attakora: “Any player we bring into Project 51O, we hope their ambition isn’t just USL. We hope they’re aspiring to be much bigger than our league, whether it’s MLS or Europe, that is what we try to develop these players to aim for in terms of ambition.
“Again, we want trophies. This is something we try to instill in our 51O players at a young age. I think we’ve done a great job this year with some of the additions we’re going to add to the academy contract group. But again, it’s finding players that have the confidence and that are coachable.
“Coachable is a big piece that we don’t talk about too often. We need players that are coachable, players that are willing to be uncomfortable. We focus a lot of our time on that aspect of the game, and I think we’ve done a great job. [51O head coach] David Cordova’s done an incredible job with 51O, and we’re really looking forward to some of the youth players that we have coming into first team training.”