NC Courage announces Mak Lind as new coach after turnover-heavy offseason

By the time Mak Lind sat down Friday afternoon in Cary to conduct his first local interviews as the North Carolina Courage’s new head coach, he had already gone through seven cups of coffee. A Red Bull, he said, was next.

Lind had arrived around midnight after four flights — Gothenburg to Stockholm, Stockholm to Helsinki, Helsinki to New York, then on to North Carolina — and had lain down for maybe three hours of sleep before reporting for his first day on the job, which started with a 6 a.m. training session.

That afternoon, he rubbed his eyes and pressed his palms to his temples as he searched for the right words to describe the moment.

“I mean, it’s overwhelming to be here and meet so many people. … [I] feel jet-lagged and ready to start the job,” Lind told the N&O.

His whirlwind arrival mirrors the situation Lind inherits in Cary. The Courage formally announced Lind as the third head coach in club history, following the abrupt firing of coach Sean Nahas in August. Lind, 37, takes over a roster reshaped by major offseason departures, including midfielder Denise O’Sullivan — the club’s all-time leader in appearances — U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper Casey Murphy and midfielder Jaedyn Shaw, a rising international star.

“I have a general mentality where I don’t believe a single person is bigger than the club,” Lind said. “Not me, not a player.”

“Even if you lose some amazing players, there will be new players who are going to be amazing and taking responsibility,” Lind continued. “I work a lot with development in the way I lead, meaning that — of course Denise is an amazing player — but somebody else will take responsibility and grow and develop.”

Lind joins the Courage from Swedish side BK Häcken Women, where he led the club to the 2025 Damallsvenskan title (the top division of women’s soccer in Sweden) with a 21-1-4 record and a plus-68 goal differential.

The Courage, meanwhile, failed to make the playoffs last season.

“I would say, first of all, we need to score more goals,” Lind said Friday. “My coaching philosophy has been that: Try to score many goals. I’m obsessed with scoring goals, so that’s going to be a main focus … and I’m confident enough that we’re going to play [in the] playoffs.

In addition to the Damallsvenskan title, Häcken also reached the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarterfinals during Lind’s tenure.

Courage Chief Soccer Officer Ceri Bowley said Lind emerged from a global coaching search as the right fit to guide the club through this reset.

“His background as a former professional player gives him a unique ability to connect with athletes, and he has demonstrated a clear commitment to teaching and implementing the proactive, possession-based style of play we value here in North Carolina,” Bowley said in a statement.

Lind said relationships were central in his decision to make the move after nearly a decade coaching at the elite level — most of it in the men’s game and all of it abroad.

“When this opportunity came up, end of last year, at the same time we were trying to go for the championship in Sweden, I felt like, ‘OK, maybe we’re ready to take this move,” Lind said. “When I talked to my wife, she was positive, and I saw an opening … it was not a hard choice in the end.”

The Courage plan to formally introduce Lind at a news conference at a later date. Until then, here is a brief Q&A to get to know the new head coach. These answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

What drew you to this role?

“I would say the people. All of the talks I’ve had with Ceri [Bowley], and with people around the club, was the key for me. I believe that relationships are important when you start a new journey in a new environment. No matter what kind of challenges you have, you need to do it with people you can believe in, and you should be aligned on a couple of things that are non-negotiable. We should be aligned about the style of play, etc. So there are many things that I felt that was right for me and also for my family. To make this move with four kids and my wife, the schools need to be good … so it was many, many reasons.”

How will you go about retooling after the loss of key players like Denise O’Sullivan?

“It’s my job, together with the staff members, to make sure we develop the next player in line. We’re going to sell players, and that’s part of the process. If we want to keep all of the players for 10 years, then there’s not so much development in your job. We sell players, we develop players, and we sell them. We bring new players, young players, exciting players, and we sell them as well. So that’s how we have been doing it.”

“In my recent club, Häcken … we sold players all the time. Big players. And everybody’s like, ‘Oh, you’re not worried. You sold your star. Why?’ Because I have a 17-year-old here waiting for her chance. Suddenly, she scored 30 goals in the league and is becoming the most exciting player in Europe. So I believe that should be part of the process. But, as you said, I’ve been here one day. I need to recognize the environment and start to get to know the players. There are big changes that happened this season, and hopefully for the greater good, and we’re gonna, for sure, develop and find a way to be even stronger.”

What are some of the principles or details that are non-negotiable for you as a coach?

“The non-negotiable principles have nothing to do with football. It’s more the soft values. We work hard, we respect each other. Nobody is bigger than the team. We put the team first and the individual after that.”

“When it comes to offensive principles in football, there are many. I think I need a couple of days with you to go through those … but I can give you something. Normally, when you talk about attacking, many coaches, my colleagues, I can ask them, ‘How do you want to score? How do you attack in your team?’ And their answer will be, ‘Ah, this is how we build up with the goalkeeper. This is how we build up on our own pitch.’ And my answer will be, ‘I didn’t ask you about how you build up. I asked you how you score goals.’”

“So what I do, basically, is I turn it around. I start with the ball inside of the goal, and I reverse it, meaning that we need to be really aligned about how we score goals when the ball is in those areas. This is how we attack the box. This is how we run. This is the timing. This is when you should do a counter movement, etc. So we reverse it. So the first week now has been only about, how do we score goals when the ball is inside of the box? And then hopefully we’re going to reverse it when the league starts. Maybe we will talk about build up with the goalkeeper.”

This story was originally published January 24, 2026 at 10:00 AM.