Everything you ever wanted to know about Charlotte FC head coach Dean Smith

Deano and Soccersheet talk nicknames, snakes 🐍, wine 🍷, and clean sheets 🛏️.

Dean Smith holding a 1995 Hereford United FC program with his (injured) face on the cover. (Sam Spencer)

In today’s Queen City Nerve, I speak with Charlotte FC head coach Dean Smith about everything - his days as a West Midlands chess champion, his professional debut at Walsall, his record-setting transfer fee at Hereford United FC (RIP), and the app he’s downloaded to identify snakes on Charlotte greenways.

And, of course, we talk about the bottles of wine for the back line (and everyone else on the team):

On May 25, after his team drew Philadelphia Union in a scoreless game at home, Charlotte FC fullback Nathan Byrne showered, put on his street clothes and made a swift departure from the team locker room with two bottles of wine under his arms. The English defender walked through a scrum of press and photographers that was so entertained by the sight that no one bothered to catch it on film.

It’s a scene that wouldn’t have made sense before Dean Smith took over as Charlotte FC head coach in December. Smith’s love of wine, especially from Italy (“Toscana, Tuscany”), manifests itself in one of the 53-year-old’s new traditions as Charlotte FC head coach: clean sheet wine for the back line.

The new coach made a promise early on in the season that he would give out wine as gifts to his defenders and goalkeepers whenever they earned a clean sheet, keeping the other team scoreless. However, Byrne had told members of the media earlier in the week that Smith was “behind on his payments” after the defense had held other teams scoreless for the entire month of May.

“I’m going out and getting a crate of wine,” Smith told us later that day, and he finally delivered a crate of wine to the squad that weekend, making Byrne’s exit all the more comical.

You can read the full piece here.

At 3000 words or so, it’s the longest profile I’ve ever done for Nerve, and it involved tens of hours of research. We procured everything from 1993 match programs to notes from referees (including a Deano red card). With all of my additional notes and interview time, it’s the first piece that feels like it could be a chapter in a Charlotte FC book (wink, wink).

Additionally, we’ve posted parts of the interviews as “The Deano Diaries” on our YouTube if you want to take a deeper dive into the life of the “West Midlands Master.”

Hope you enjoy - and watch out for more episodes of the Deano Diaries soon.