Racing Louisville and head coach Kim Björkegren have parted ways, with players expected to be informed in a meeting on Friday morning, multiple sources briefed on the matter told The Athletic. The sources were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the move publicly. Racing Louisville declined to comment on Thursday night.

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Louisville hired Björkegren in December 2021. His contract was set to expire this year with an option to extend. A source briefed on Björkegren’s decision-making said that the coach had already decided to depart the team prior to Thursday’s news and informed the club before his contract option could be discussed.

Björkegren was the club’s second head coach since joining NWSL, hired in 2022 after holding previous jobs in his native Sweden, China and Cyprus. He oversaw a roster with many talented players, including United States internationals Savannah DeMelo, Jaelin Howell and Carson Pickett along with international stars Ary Borges, Abby Erceg and Nadia Nadim. Katie Lund also turned in a 2023 season that saw her shortlisted for the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year award.

Despite this and other strong individual performances, Louisville finished ninth in the NWSL table in 2023, the third time the club has finished in that spot in as many seasons. The team went cold in the final weeks with playoff qualification on the line, losing three of its final four games including a pair of defeats against teams that finished below them in the final table (Houston Dash and the Chicago Red Stars).

There is urgency for Louisville to put a playoff-caliber team together. The team plays in state-of-the-art Lynn Family Stadium, which opened ahead of the team’s first season in 2021. Average attendance has declined in each of the club’s three NWSL seasons, from 6,565 in 2021 to 5,999 this season. Ownership’s other club, Louisville City FC, is a perennial title contender in the men’s second-division USL Championship, having won the league in 2017 and 2018 before finishing as runners-up in 2019 and 2022.

The club has made several hires across its staff over the past year, first adding former NWSL player Beverly Yanez as an assistant coach last November, then adding former USWNT team manager Ryan Dell as general manager in March.

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(Photo: Jaylynn Nash / USA Today)