MBU shake up technical staff
ST JAMES, Jamaica — Argentine Javier Marcelo Ainstein was recently named as head coach of Montego Bay United for the 2026-27 season, days after he resigned from fellow JPL team Waterhouse “with immediate effect”.
Ainstein had taken over at Waterhouse in January following the firing of long-time coach Marcel Gayle and had guided them to the Jamaica Premier League play-offs where they lost in the quarterfinals to Cavalier SC.
Ainstein is the second Argentine to take up the reins at MBU in the last two years after Rodolfo Zapata spent part of the 2024-25 season at the club before he was replaced by Paul ‘Tegat’ Davis.
Meanwhile, Xavier Gilbert who had been named head coach a year ago and led MBU to the semi-finals of the JPL, has been promoted to the role of technical director.
He will replace Andrew Peart, and according to a release from the club “establishes a single, unified football leadership structure with clear ownership at every level of the club.”
Yoni Epstein, CEO of the club, was quoted as saying, “Xavier has shown us, in a single season, that he can build not just a team, but an institution. Promoting him to technical director is an elevation in recognition of that record. We are asking him to build our footballing vision that runs from our youngest academy players all the way to the senior teams, and there is no one better placed to lead it.”
Gilbert said, “This club gave me the platform to lead, and I am honoured to take this responsibility. My focus is to build a clear identity and a real pathway- a structure where every coach has what they need to win and where a child who joins our academy can see a route all the way to the first team.”
According to the release, as technical director, Gilbert “will own the club’s footballing strategy and assume oversight of all footballing activity: the senior men’s and senior women’s teams, the youth academy (U5–U18), recruitment across local, regional and international markets, and the club’s representation at the Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL) and with the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF)”.
A central part of his mandate is the development of the youth academy into both a player pathway and a sustainable revenue engine for the club.”
