For years, players competing in the USL Championship have known that when they’re on the field, someone is likely to be paying attention.

It’s a big reason why the league has become an attractive landing spot for talent aiming to take their careers to the next level, either domestically or in Europe. The transfer deals clubs across the Championship have struck over the past three years are evidence of that potential.

Now, however, that’s not only applying to players.

On Tuesday, Orange County SC announced Head Coach Morten Karlsen had departed the club to become the manager at Danish SuperLiga club Lyngby Boldklub ahead of its new season in August.

A two-time Championship Coach of the Month award-winner last season – the first in league history to win the award in consecutive months – Karlsen took a side that was in 11th place in the West to a second-place finish in the regular season. In just over a year at the helm, he averaged 1.76 points per game with the club while maintaining its ethos of offering opportunity to young talent in the squad.

The move, for which OCSC received a fee, was the latest in a sequence that has seen high achievers from the Championship earn opportunities overseas or domestically.

• LESESNE LEADS: After his success at New Mexico United, Troy Lesesne joined the New York Red Bulls as an assistant coach before ascending to the Head Coach position during the 2023 campaign.

  • Lesesne posted a winning record and took the Red Bulls to the postseason before being let go last offseason. He was quickly hired as Head Coach for D.C. United.

• BURKE’S INFLUENCE: Having engineered a major turnaround in two seasons at Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC, including taking the side to the Western Conference Final of the 2022 USL Championship Playoffs, Brendan Burke was acquired by Houston Dynamo FC to serve as an assistant to Head Coach Ben Olsen.

  • As Olsen drew plaudits for reversing the club’s fortunes – including winning the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2017 – the influence of Burke’s attacking playing style at the forefront in Colorado Springs was evident.

• GUERRA STEPS IN: After Burke departed Houston to become Head Coach at the Championship’s Hartford Athletic, the Dynamo once again dipped into the Championship to recruit his successor. This time they acquired Juan Guerra, fresh off leading Phoenix Rising FC to the 2023 USL Championship Final.

  • These successive moves made Olsen’s comments following his side’s elimination from the Open Cup by Detroit City FC in May all the funnier for those in the know.

While Karlsen is moving on, there are other candidates with strong resumes currently in the league. Most recently, New Mexico United’s Eric Quill has been linked with the open job at FC Dallas, a logical thought given his connection to the club and prior success with North Texas SC in USL League One.

Then there are the likes of Sacramento Republic FC’s Mark Briggs, who recently passed 100 career wins in the Championship and has his success in the U.S. Open Cup to point to, or young stars Danny Cruz at Louisville City FC and Ben Pirmann at the Charleston Battery, both of whom have achieved major successes before the age of 40.

Whether or not those managers get their chance to bring similar success to a club at a higher level remains to be seen.

What’s certain, though, is that on the field, on the sidelines, and in the stands, there might never have been a better time to be part of the USL Championship for the quality and opportunity it delivers.