MLS champion coach headed to Seattle?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Weeks after winning the MLS championship, the Columbus Crew are searching for a new head coach.

Sigi Schmid declined a contract offer tendered in mid-October that would have made him one of the highest-paid coaches in the league, general manager and president Mark McCullers said Wednesday, a day after the club announced that the league’s coach of the year wouldn’t return for a fourth season.

“Sigi had always been very up front that he wanted to explore his options,” McCullers said. “His family’s in California and I know it’s been very difficult for him being that far away from them.”

The Columbus Dispatch reported Wednesday that Schmid met with officials from the expansion Seattle Sounders last week. Schmid has expressed a desire to become one of the MLS’s highest-paid coaches while lamenting the difficulty of traveling to and from his family’s home in southern California, the newspaper said.

The 55-year-old Schmid has made no public comment on his departure from the Crew.

The Crew won their first MLS Cup last month with a 3-1 win over the New York Red Bulls in the championship game played in the home stadium of Schmid’s old club, the Los Angeles Galaxy. Under Schmid, the Galaxy also won the title in 2002 — then axed him two years later.

To replace Schmid, the Columbus is looking at coaching candidates from outside and within the organization, McCullers said.

“Internally, we certainly have a top coach in Robert Warzycha,” he said, referring to the assistant coach.

The club wants to announce a decision as quickly as possible, McCullers said.

“I’m looking for a coach who has a great eye for talent, who can get the team to perform at the highest level and who also can continue to help us build a professional environment and a top-rated soccer club,” he said.

Schmid was hired by Columbus in the fall of 2005 after Greg Andrulis was fired following a 4-10-2 season.

Schmid was named as Major League Soccer’s coach of the year in November. He also won the award in 1999 while with the Galaxy. He became only the second coach in MLS history to win the award more than once. Bob Bradley won in 1998 and 2006.