Boston Legacy FC names Filipa Patão as NWSL club's inaugural coach
Boston Legacy FC has named Filipa Patão as the NWSL club's inaugural coach, the club announced Wednesday morning.
The 36-year-old, who spent the last five years coaching Benfica's women's team, begins her role in July pending visa approval. She will be tasked with building the Legacy, the league's 15th expansion club, from the ground up, with the team debuting in the NWSL in 2026.
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'The American league is extremely competitive, and that's one of the reasons I accepted this project,' Patão said in a club statement. '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.'
In Patão, the Legacy have tapped a coach with significant experience coaching at the professional level. As the global women's game continues to grow exponentially, coaching roles in top leagues remain competitive to fill.
Patão had been the head coach of Benfica's women's senior team since 2000, tallying a 156-28-15 record during her tenure. The manager has enjoyed a historic run with Benfica in that time, winning the Campeonato Nacional, Portugal's top flight, five years in a row.
She also took Benfica to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Women's Champions League in 2023-2024, becoming the first Portuguese club to advance this far in the competition. Patão also led Benfica to the second round of the UWCL the following year.
Patão first joined Benfica in 2007 through its youth coaching ranks. She eventually took over the U-15, U-17 and U-19 women's teams, the team said. Her experience with all levels of development appears to have been a draw for the Legacy.
'Filipa demonstrates all of the qualities that personify this club and the way we want to play: with passion, grit, and style,' the team's controlling owner Jennifer Epstein said in a club statement. '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.'
In becoming the Legacy's inaugural manager, Patão will also mark the third active female head coach in the NWSL, joining Racing Louisville's Bev Yanez and Seattle Reign's Laura Harvey. That's out of 15 clubs with filled roles. NWSL Denver, the league's 16th expansion team, is joining the league next year alongside Boston, but has yet to name its inaugural head coach.
The incoming coach will be tasked with building the Legacy's identity. This includes developing the team's style of play and building an entire roster starting from scratch.
'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,' Legacy general manager Domè Guasch said in a statement. 'Filipa is a coach I believe can help us build a great culture where players understand they will come here to grow and learn.'
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This season is also the first time NWSL expansion clubs will be without the league's usual expansion draft for player recruitment. To assist expansion teams, the league announced earlier this month new roster-building resources available to Boston and fellow expansion side NWSL Denver, including $1,065,000 in allocation money, with 50 percent of those funds provided by the NWSL.
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