Coaches

What does the include do?

The coaches include allows you to retrieve information about the head coaches (managers) of both teams in a fixture. This gives you each coach's biographical and profile data alongside the fixture, so you can display who was in charge of each side for a given match.

Why use coaches?

The coaches include is useful for:

• Match centre displays: Show which manager was in charge of each team for a specific fixture

• Manager profiles: Access biographical data (nationality, date of birth, image) without a separate request

• Tactical build-up context: Combine with lineups and formations to attribute team selection to a specific coach

• Historical tracking: See coaching changes across a season by comparing the coaches include across multiple fixtures for the same team

Requesting coaches

To retrieve coach information for a fixture, use the following include:

https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/{fixture_id}
?api_token=YOUR_TOKEN&include=coaches

Example: Get coaches for Sparta Rotterdam vs Feyenoord (fixture ID: 19714695)

https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/19714695
?api_token=YOUR_TOKEN&include=coaches

Response structure

When you include coaches in your request, you'll receive an array of two coach objects, one for each team in the fixture:

Response structure

{
  "data": {
    "id": 19714695,
    "sport_id": 1,
    "league_id": 72,
    "season_id": 27958,
    "stage_id": 77482444,
    "group_id": null,
    "aggregate_id": null,
    "round_id": 407172,
    "state_id": 5,
    "venue_id": 332,
    "name": "Sparta Rotterdam vs Feyenoord",
    "starting_at": "2026-08-09 10:15:00",
    "result_info": "Feyenoord won after full-time.",
    "leg": "1/1",
    "details": null,
    "length": 90,
    "placeholder": false,
    "has_odds": true,
    "has_premium_odds": true,
    "starting_at_timestamp": 1786270500,
    "coaches": [
      {
        "id": 23237,
        "player_id": 23237,
        "sport_id": 1,
        "country_id": 38,
        "nationality_id": 38,
        "city_id": null,
        "common_name": "G. van Bronckhorst",
        "firstname": "Giovanni",
        "lastname": "van Bronckhorst",
        "name": "Giovanni van Bronckhorst",
        "display_name": "Giovanni van Bronckhorst",
        "image_path": "https://cdn.sportmonks.com/images/soccer/coaches/5/23237.png",
        "height": 178,
        "weight": 75,
        "date_of_birth": "1975-02-05",
        "gender": "male",
        "meta": {
          "fixture_id": 19714695,
          "coach_id": 23237,
          "participant_id": 73
        }
      },
      {
        "id": 23707,
        "player_id": 23707,
        "sport_id": 1,
        "country_id": 38,
        "nationality_id": 38,
        "city_id": null,
        "common_name": "R. Meijer",
        "firstname": "Rogier",
        "lastname": "Meijer",
        "name": "Rogier Meijer",
        "display_name": "Rogier Meijer",
        "image_path": "https://cdn.sportmonks.com/images/soccer/coaches/27/23707.png",
        "height": 186,
        "weight": 70,
        "date_of_birth": "1981-09-05",
        "gender": "male",
        "meta": {
          "fixture_id": 19714695,
          "coach_id": 23707,
          "participant_id": 919
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Field descriptions

Main coach fields

Field	Type	Description
id	integer	Unique identifier for this coach
player_id	integer	Links to a player record if the coach previously played professionally, null otherwise
sport_id	integer	ID of the sport (1 = football/soccer)
country_id	integer	ID of the coach's country
nationality_id	integer	ID of the coach's nationality
common_name	string	Shortened display name (e.g. "G. van Bronckhorst")
firstname	string	Coach's first name
lastname	string	Coach's last name
name	string	Full name
display_name	string	Preferred display name
image_path	string	URL to the coach's headshot
height	integer	Height in centimetres, may be null
weight	integer	Weight in kilograms, may be null
date_of_birth	string	Date of birth (YYYY-MM-DD)
gender	string	"male" or "female"

Meta object fields

Unlike the participants include, coach objects do not carry a location field. The meta object only links the coach to the fixture and the team:

Field	Type	Description
meta.fixture_id	integer	The fixture this coach assignment belongs to
meta.coach_id	integer	Repeats the coach's id
meta.participant_id	integer	The linking field. Matches the id of one of the two teams in participants

Identifying home vs away coach

Coach objects have no home/away flag of their own. To determine which coach belongs to the home team and which to the away team, combine coaches with participants and match on meta.participant_id:

https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/{fixture_id}
?api_token=YOUR_TOKEN&include=coaches;participants

JavaScript

function getCoachesByLocation(fixture) {
  const home = fixture.participants.find(p => p.meta.location === 'home');
  const away = fixture.participants.find(p => p.meta.location === 'away');

  const homeCoach = fixture.coaches.find(c => c.meta.participant_id === home.id);
  const awayCoach = fixture.coaches.find(c => c.meta.participant_id === away.id);

  return { homeCoach, awayCoach };
}

Python

def get_coaches_by_location(fixture):
    home = next(p for p in fixture['participants'] if p['meta']['location'] == 'home')
    away = next(p for p in fixture['participants'] if p['meta']['location'] == 'away')

    home_coach = next(c for c in fixture['coaches'] if c['meta']['participant_id'] == home['id'])
    away_coach = next(c for c in fixture['coaches'] if c['meta']['participant_id'] == away['id'])

    return home_coach, away_coach

PHP

function getCoachesByLocation(array $fixture): array
{
    $home = current(array_filter($fixture['participants'], fn($p) => $p['meta']['location'] === 'home'));
    $away = current(array_filter($fixture['participants'], fn($p) => $p['meta']['location'] === 'away'));

    $homeCoach = current(array_filter($fixture['coaches'], fn($c) => $c['meta']['participant_id'] === $home['id']));
    $awayCoach = current(array_filter($fixture['coaches'], fn($c) => $c['meta']['participant_id'] === $away['id']));

    return [$homeCoach, $awayCoach];
}

Nested includes

Coach records support additional nested includes, in line with the standalone Coach entity:

• coaches.country - Full country record instead of just country_id

• coaches.player - The coach's own playing career record, when player_id is not null

• coaches.trophies - Honours won across the coach's career

https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/{fixture_id}
?api_token=YOUR_TOKEN&include=coaches.country

Code examples

JavaScript example

JavaScript

const API_TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN";
const FIXTURE_ID = 19714695;

async function getFixtureCoaches() {
  const url = `https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/${FIXTURE_ID}`;
  const params = new URLSearchParams({
    api_token: API_TOKEN,
    include: "coaches;participants"
  });

  const response = await fetch(`${url}?${params}`);
  const data = await response.json();
  const fixture = data.data;

  const home = fixture.participants.find(p => p.meta.location === 'home');
  const away = fixture.participants.find(p => p.meta.location === 'away');

  const homeCoach = fixture.coaches.find(c => c.meta.participant_id === home.id);
  const awayCoach = fixture.coaches.find(c => c.meta.participant_id === away.id);

  console.log(`${home.name}: ${homeCoach.display_name}`);
  console.log(`${away.name}: ${awayCoach.display_name}`);
}

getFixtureCoaches();

Python

import requests

API_TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN"
FIXTURE_ID = 19714695

url = f"https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/{FIXTURE_ID}"
params = {
    "api_token": API_TOKEN,
    "include": "coaches;participants"
}

response = requests.get(url, params=params)
fixture = response.json()['data']

home = next(p for p in fixture['participants'] if p['meta']['location'] == 'home')
away = next(p for p in fixture['participants'] if p['meta']['location'] == 'away')

home_coach = next(c for c in fixture['coaches'] if c['meta']['participant_id'] == home['id'])
away_coach = next(c for c in fixture['coaches'] if c['meta']['participant_id'] == away['id'])

print(f"{home['name']}: {home_coach['display_name']}")
print(f"{away['name']}: {away_coach['display_name']}")

PHP

<?php

$apiToken = "YOUR_TOKEN";
$fixtureId = 19714695;

$url = "https://api.sportmonks.com/v3/football/fixtures/{$fixtureId}";
$params = http_build_query([
    "api_token" => $apiToken,
    "include" => "coaches;participants"
]);

$response = file_get_contents("{$url}?{$params}");
$fixture = json_decode($response, true)["data"];

$home = current(array_filter($fixture["participants"], fn($p) => $p["meta"]["location"] === "home"));
$away = current(array_filter($fixture["participants"], fn($p) => $p["meta"]["location"] === "away"));

$homeCoach = current(array_filter($fixture["coaches"], fn($c) => $c["meta"]["participant_id"] === $home["id"]));
$awayCoach = current(array_filter($fixture["coaches"], fn($c) => $c["meta"]["participant_id"] === $away["id"]));

echo "{$home['name']}: {$homeCoach['display_name']}\n";
echo "{$away['name']}: {$awayCoach['display_name']}\n";

Best practices

1. Always pair with participants for home/away context. Coach objects have no location field of their own, meta.participant_id is the only link back to a specific team.

2. Check player_id before assuming a playing career. Many coaches never played professionally at a tracked level, player_id is null in that case.

3. Handle null height/weight gracefully. These fields are frequently unavailable for coaches, unlike for active players.

4. Cache coach data per season. Coaching changes happen mid-season, but not per match, a daily cache is usually sufficient.

Related includes

• Participants - Required to resolve home/away for each coach

• Lineups - Cross-reference team selection with the coach who picked it

• Referees - Another fixture-level personnel include with a similar shape

Summary

The coaches include returns each team's head coach for a fixture, linked back to the correct team via meta.participant_id, not a team_id or meta.location field. To display home vs away coach, combine this include with participants and match on that field. Nested includes (coaches.country, coaches.player, coaches.trophies) are available for deeper coach profile data.