In an exclusive interview for Protagonist Soccer, Zach Lowy of Breaking The Lines, and contributing writer to FourFourTwo, The Guardian, and The Independent, chats with Assistant Coach, Jeyhan Bhindi, of Union Omaha.
Los Buhos, the 2024 Players Shield Champions of USL League One are headed into the playoffs again, and Zach gets us a conversation from inside the camp.

Gunning for Success with Union Omaha

It has been a stunning start to life for Union Omaha Soccer Club…

After finishing second in the truncated COVID season, Union Omaha won the domestic double in their first-ever full season after finishing atop the USL League One standings in 2021 before thrashing FC Tucson 6-1 in the semifinals and beating Greenville Triumph 3-0 in the final. Whilst Omaha struggled to live up to expectations in the league and playoffs, they nevertheless enjoyed a historic 2022 campaign after defeating two MLS sides and making it all the way to the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals, where they lost to Sporting Kansas City. Omaha would proceed to finish atop the table in 2023 before losing to Charlotte Independence on penalties in the semifinals, before claiming their third Players’ Shield and second USL1 Championship in 2024. It’s why, after spending his entire life in Canada, Jeyhan Bhindi decided to head south of the border and start a new journey in Nebraska as an assistant coach for Omaha.

Born in Ottawa to a Turkish mother and a Ugandan father, Bhindi grew up dreaming of becoming a professional soccer player and played in the local amateur leagues before hanging up his boots and pursuing a coaching career. He started working with his local side, Ottawa Fury FC, working on the coaching staff for the boys’ U-17 and U-19 sides as well as the girls’ U-19 side, as well as an interim video analyst / opposition scout for the first team between 2012 and 2017. Initially a part-time gig, Bhindi decided to take a leap of faith by abandoning his regular 9-5 HVAC job and betting on a career in the coaching industry. Bit by bit, his decision paid off, with Bhindi working remotely as a video analyst for then-USL Championship side Austin Bold before taking his talents to the newly formed Canadian Premier League with FC Edmonton as an assistant coach in 2021. He spent one year in Edmonton before heading to Winnipeg, where he served as a First-Team Assistant Coach and Video Analyst. With Bhindi overseeing proceedings, Valour managed to challenge for a first-ever playoff qualification, only to burn out and finish fifth in the 2022 season.

“One really exciting time was our 2022 season at Valour,” stated Bhindi in an exclusive Protagonist Soccer interview. “At that time, the CanPL was only the top four teams that made the playoffs, and we were fifth. We were there flirting with the playoffs and kicking the heels of the team that was in fourth, and we were flip-flopping between fourth and fifth. That was a really, really fun experience, because we were there right till the end, and it wasn’t until the last two matchdays that it fell apart. It was really exhilarating and fun, because at Edmonton, I wasn't near the playoffs, so it was really exciting for me. I remember we won 3-1 at York, and then everybody said, ‘No, these guys, are going to be tired,’ and then we took a nice locker room photo and then we went and won 1-0 at Forge three days later, before beating Halifax Wanderers the following week. We were on a little bit of a roll, and it was a really, really fun moment that I'll never forget.”

Whilst Bhindi has spent his entire life in North America, he hasn’t strayed far away from Europe. He is fluent in English and Turkish and boasts intermediate knowledge of Portuguese, French, and Spanish, and he’s parlayed this into foreign adventures that have seen him advance his coaching ambitions. Bhindi enjoyed one-week-long coaching internships with Turkish clubs Manisaspor, Beşiktaş, and Fenerbahçe in 2015, returning eight years later to complete another week-long visit with Fatih Karagümrük, whilst he also completed internships with Académica de Coimbra, Porto, and Vitória F.C. between 2017 and 2018. Eventually, he hopes to utilize this knowledge to help him launch a career in Europe.

“[Going to Europe] started to be in my head in the last year, as I began to meet people that have worked in football for a long time, and worked in different parts of the world, and one common thing is that you never know how long this journey's gonna be. It's such a cutthroat, competitive industry, you could be working for a year, or 10 years, or 15. I want to see how far this journey is gonna go for me, so in the past year and a half, I've started to build my network and put myself out there and meet people in other parts of the world. I really want to experience working in a different country outside of North America. I have an aspiration one day to work in Türkiye, as chaotic and competitive and cutthroat that I know that soccer market is, it's something that I would really, really like to do once in my lifetime. Even if I just go for 2-3 months and then am out, just to be able to say I did it. But I’m really exploring everywhere in the globe. I'm not closing any doors, and that's something that's really fun for me to think about.”

This has been a transformative 2025 for Bhindi, who made the move to Nebraska in January. After three years at Valour, he’s now enjoying a new lease on life in the Midwest and getting the chance to travel across the United States on a regular basis. But more than that, he’s also unlocked a new achievement in his burgeoning coaching career. Similarly to many other coaches like Michael Carrick and Renato Paiva, Bhindi has gone down the UEFA coaching route, and after previously collecting a B and C license, he’s managed to secure his UEFA A license this year.

“I think it was really important for me to get to the A license because it opens so many doors, and I was really blessed and fortunate enough to be accepted on the A license on my first application as a foreigner. I know a lot of people who it took them about three applications to get on, because it's so competitive, and they only offer so many every year in different parts of the world. They don't even offer it to some foreigners; they only offer it to people in their own domestic countries, so that was really important for me to get out of the way. The next level after that is to do the UEFA Pro license, which is much more competitive to get into. The last coach I worked with, he just finished this, and he’s been in professional soccer for 11 years. Something else that I've thought about exploring is that the US offers a really good pro license also, and that's great for also networking. That's something that I've kept my eye on but I'm really just happy to get the A license off my shoulders for now.”

At 34 years of age, Jeyhan Bhindi still has plenty of things to check off his bucket list, from securing his UEFA Pro License to working in Europe, but right now, all that he’s focused on is leading Omaha to the promised land. After winning four of their last five matches, Omaha currently sit fourth in the league table, one point above FC Naples, three above Tormenta FC, and four above Portland Hearts of Pine (who have two games in hand). They are guaranteed to reach the playoffs and finish no higher than fourth and no lower than seventh, and they’ll be looking to close out their regular season with a victory at home against Spokane on Saturday.

“I think [going to Omaha] was just timing, you know? I had a lot of conversations with Valour coach Philip Dos Santos who had kind of a similar pathway where he was an assistant for a long time and worked with a coach who was his brother for a long time, and then worked with someone else, and that really helped him grow. I said that's a good idea, and that's big for growth, and we decided that it would be good for me to get out from under his wing and work with someone else.”

- Zach Lowy