Former Minnesota United, Vancouver goalies coach has a reputation of building up programs
Marius Røvde, who took over as executive director of Bloomington United youth soccer club on Feb. 1, has a name that might be familiar to soccer fans.
Røvde served as goalkeeper coach for Minnesota United as the club made the successful transition to Major League Soccer in 2016-17, but that isn’t where the background began or ends for Røvde.
His lineage through the sport includes a decade as a professional goalkeeper in Scotland and Europe before embarking on a leadership role at various levels across the Western Hemisphere including Minnesota and Canada along with Trinidad and Tobago.
While in Minnesota, Røvde helped the club find MNUFC2 goalkeeper and St. Paul native Fred Emmings who was the first hometown player to sign a contract ahead of the 2020 season. The 6-foot-5, 20-year-old made his first team debut just after graduating from St. Paul Central High School. He is the MLS Next Pro MNUFC2 goalkeeper.
Richmond FC
Most recently, Røvde helped turn around Richmond FC, a community-based soccer club near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada growing from 800 kids to approximately 5,000 kids between 2018-2024.
Røvde and the club did a lot of work to reach out to the underserved population including the Indigenous and refugee communities.
“We had a lot of the first refugees from Afghanistan when NATO pulled out plus Ukrainian refugees coming over after the war began,” he said as they offered free soccer programming plus food and gear to help the families integrate into the larger Vancouver community. “We wanted them to be part of a normal team and have at least some sense of normalcy in their lives as they tried to settle in.”
They had upward of 200 kids playing for free thanks to generous partners from the business community.
“We found some sponsors who wanted to be part of it through grants and built it up,” Røvde said while being recognized with multiple awards.
As a result of the ability to grow participation, Richmond FC was named the Association of the Year, Business Excellence Awards, and Chamber of Commerce honors in 2022 and 2023.
“From running the youth club to winning awards we had a good reputation because we are helping people – when we would meet up with businesses they would ask us how they can help. We built the brand up through the community outreach,” he said. “It’s not unique to have a club playing soccer but we built the brand into something special.
“The bread and butter of the club is in the development aspect through camps and other programs and by word of mouth. Friends would want to join to be together but then they do a good job and with the right training get better and eventually they want to see how good they can be and move on from the developmental to the competitive program.”
He began as the director of sports (2018-20) before becoming executive director for the last four years.
Pro ranks
Røvde’s professional career spanned 12 years in Norway, Scotland and England before securing his UEFA “A” goalkeeper “pro-license” and a KNVB Johan Cruyff Masters of Sports Management degree.
Among his professional stops, Røvde was part of Wrexham AFC well before the days when Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the club and started the popular “Welcome to Wrexham” series on FX.
A native of Trondheim, Norway, he began his career with hometown club Rosenborg Ballklub in 1987 before stops in Norway’s top-flight Eliteserien with Stabaek IF, Lilestrom SK and Hamarkameratene as well as time in Scotland with Ayr United FC and Motherwell FC.
He returned to coaching stints in Norway and Scotland before heading to the Caribbean to work with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation from 2008-11.
Not only was he the director of goalkeepers for the national men’s and women’s programs, but he also worked as the head goalkeeper coach at Trinidad and Tobago’s Joe Public FC.
He was part of the coaching staff for three World Cups including the U17 Women’s World Cup team as hosts. That TTFF team was ranked higher than the United States, Mexico and Canada at that time. He started working with the group two years before the tournament.
“We treated them like a club team practicing six days a week over two years and finished seventh at that World Cup,” he said.
His top goalkeeper was named the Golden Gloves Winner as the FIFA World Cup Goalkeeper of the Year in 2010.
Major League Soccer
Røvde spent seven combined years with MLS clubs between Vancouver and Minnesota including three consecutive seasons with an MLS All-Star goalkeeper and/or center back between 2012-14.
Røvde joined the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2011 to work with the goalkeepers and added Canada Soccer coaching duties with the U17 and U20 programs from 2012-14.
He was part of Minnesota United in 2016-17 before returning to Vancouver for a second time. Ahead of the 2019 season, he became the G©alkeeper coach for Pacific Football Club for its inaugural season in the eight-team Canadian Premier League which led to Richmond FC reaching out to see if he could help turn the club around.
“Richmond FC is in a diverse area with a lot of Chinese and East Indians and we brought two clubs together,” Røvde said. “It took some years and energy but now it is close to 5-6,00 kids and I feel like my job is done. This opportunity came up and I said, ‘Okay, I can try to do this again.”
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