Following a dramatic comeback win over the Seattle Reign on Saturday, Gotham FC head coach Juan Carlos Amorós announced he will be stepping away from the team for five weeks for parental leave.Amorós welcomed his second child, Laia, earlier in the year. The Spanish head coach has been outspoken about the importance of finding balance between work and family.He stepped away from the club briefly in May, when Laia was born, and he thanked his coaching staff for leading the team without him at a postmatch news conference earlier this season. He stressed how they stepped up in the day-to-day while he tended to his growing family.“This is a personal decision for our family, but I also recognize the visibility that comes with my role, Amorós said Saturday. “When fathers take parental leave, particularly men in leadership positions, it helps normalize an important principle: Caring for children is a shared responsibility between parents.”
Assistant head coach Shaun Harris will serve as acting head coach in the interim.Amorós said he informed the Gotham players of his upcoming paternity leave before the team’s July 4 match against the San Diego Wave. The club, he said, has been preparing for his absence for the last five or six weeks.Gotham secured a massive three points Saturday after scoring three goals in the final 17 minutes of their match against Seattle to come back from a two-goal deficit despite an hours-long delay in play.Esther González scored goals in the 81st and 94th minutes, with Rose Lavelle scoring the winner in the 98th. The match finished five minutes later.
