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New York Times
20-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Inside the world of sporting directors: What do they do? And what makes a good one?
Players are the focus of any football transfer storyline. Managers, agents and club owners add to the intrigue, of course, but it's a relatively new role which has been garnering increased attention with every transfer window — the sporting director. Fundamentally, the remit of the sporting director is to be be a link between the coaching staff and the club's hierarchy, providing continuity, sustainability and a stable strategy in the club's football operations. Advertisement 'The sporting director is the safeguard of the culture of the club,' says Damien Comolli, Juventus' general manager and previously sporting or football director at Fenerbahce, Liverpool, Saint-Etienne and Tottenham. 'We need to make sure that short term, medium term and long term are looked at with the same level of interest.' While sporting directors were scarce in the Premier League at the start of the 21st century, they have become the norm at top-level clubs, with many known among fans by name. Last October, Txiki Begiristain announced that he is leaving Manchester City this summer after 12 years at the club, with Hugo Viana replacing him. On the other side of the city, controversy ran high when Dan Ashworth left his role as Manchester United sporting director after just five months in the role. Former Atletico Madrid sporting director Andrea Berta was confirmed as Arsenal's new sporting director in March, replacing Edu after the Brazilian's shock resignation in November to join Evangelos Marinakis' multi-club group. Meanwhile, Richard Hughes arrived as Liverpool's sporting director last summer with a daunting in-tray that included crucial contract negotiations for star trio Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold. The lens on the sporting director has never been sharper, yet what they do is still often misunderstood. To gain a better understanding, The Athletic interviewed several sporting directors and collaborated with analytics company Traits Insights who collected data — including sporting background and experience — on over 300 sporting directors (or equivalents) across 15 major European competitions. Crucially, what makes a successful one? For all the attention it has garnered, there is still ambiguity about the role itself between different clubs. The title of 'director of football', 'sporting director', 'general manager', 'chief football officer' and 'technical director' are ultimately synonyms for the same job, though what clubs expect from that job does vary. Advertisement While the role of a head coach or manager is clearly defined, a sporting director does not have a one-size-fits-all approach. Depending on the level of the club or league, the infrastructure built around the role can vary hugely. For some clubs, there will be a single director who sits at the centre of the system; for others, there will be shared responsibilities spanning multiple roles. 'In Germany, you might have a sporting director, a 'kaderplaner' (head of recruitment), a technical director, and then an executive only responsible for sport,' says Jonas Boldt, former sporting director at Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen. 'When you also think about the coach too, this can have issues at times, because it is difficult to know who has the power or responsibility, and where to share those roles out clearly.' The fact that football is developing so rapidly, not just the Premier League, has added to the uncertainty over exactly what the sporting director is responsible for. As Comolli says, 'The structure of clubs is changing.' 'These roles have existed for much longer in Germany, Italy and Spain than it has in England,' he continues, 'but I would not distinguish from country to country — I would say the industry is changing as a whole. 'In the last five years, I've seen the role evolve. For example, Manchester City were very successful with Txiki (Begiristain), and then they brought Simon Timson in as a performance director (in 2020), who gets involved in a lot of areas. 'Ten years ago, I would have told you that they are taking work from each other, but actually they complement each other really well — the job of one becomes two, and the industry is now going in that direction.' Brentford is a good example of two roles dovetailing together in the Premier League. Director of football, Phil Giles, is responsible for squad management, squad planning and contract renewals at the club while technical director, Lee Dykes is in charge of Brentford's recruitment department. Advertisement The two work in tandem towards a shared goal of ensuring the best possible talent ends up on the pitch — or as Giles puts it, 'Mine and Lee's job is to do the nuts and bolts of the transfer.' When looking through the number of sporting director (or equivalent) roles across Europe's major leagues, the contrast in structure starts to become clearer. As Comolli said, sporting director roles have long been established in Italy, Germany and Spain, as well as in the Netherlands, with a minimum of one position filled within each club across each of those respective leagues. Ligue 1 had the lowest share of sporting directors within the league, with 15 of 18 clubs having a position filled. With the Premier League catching up in recent years, 19 of the 20 clubs had at least one sporting director (or equivalent) in place last season — up from 13 out of 20 in 2016-17. Of the 20 clubs, eight (40 per cent) split the structure across two roles, akin to Giles and Dykes. Previous experience among sporting directors can vary significantly. Returning to Giles and Dykes as an example, the former gained a PhD in statistics before working his way up to head of quantitative research at Smartodds, which is owned by Brentford majority owner Matthew Benham. Meanwhile, Dykes joined Brentford as head of recruitment after being sporting director at Bury FC — with a background in coaching having previously been assistant manager at Carlisle United. Analysis by Traits outlined four 'archetypes' that best describe the most common pathways sporting directors follow prior to landing the role. They are: Crucially, these archetypes are not mutually exclusive. Rather than pigeon-holing specific sporting directors to specific categories, it is better to think of the diverse pathways as a Venn diagram with plenty of crossover in the skills that are acquired from the respective backgrounds. 'I would add one other pathway, which is the academy pathway,' says Comolli. 'Dan Ashworth comes from an academy background, for example. Sassuolo have won promotion back to Serie A this season, and their sporting director, Francesco Palmieri, was the club's academy manager for nine years before he got this role. Incidentally, he was also a former player himself.' Advertisement It is a sentiment shared by others across the industry, with a club's academy acting as an ideal breeding ground for a role within the senior set-up. 'I think working as an academy manager can be a useful step to prepare (to be a sporting director),' says Johannes Spors, sporting director at Southampton and formerly of multi-club 777 Partners, Genoa, and Vitesse Arnhem. 'You basically make the same decisions, just with less financial impact. At times, academy directors manage more staff members than I do, but the decisions simply become more impactful the higher you get.' It is common for appointed sporting directors to arrive into their roles having had experience elsewhere within football clubs. For example, Norwich City's sporting director Ben Knapper was the loan and pathway manager at Arsenal before making the move to the Championship side. However, Traits' analysis showed that 17 per cent came from non-technical roles or roles outside of football altogether. A notable example would be Tottenham Hotspur's recently departed chief football officer Scott Munn, who held roles in commercial operations of the National Rugby League and Australian Football League before later working as a CEO at Melbourne City and later City Football Group. His role at Spurs as chief football officer saw him focus more on football strategy, with the role created after an external review of the club's footballing activities. The core management skills and business acumen required to fulfil the role are often separate from the football industry itself. There can often be a cyclical criticism between 'people who know the game' and 'those who know how to run a successful business' when discussing those within the boardroom, but the evidence shows that having a background within football is not always a precursor to working within the industry. As a further example, Aston Villa's director of football operations, Damian Vidagany, worked as a journalist in his early career before taking a role as Valencia's chief media officer and later becoming chief executive of DV7, a media agency founded by former Spain international David Villa. Working alongside Monchi, the renowned sporting director who is now Villa's president of football operations, Vidagany is regarded as one of Unai Emery's most trusted colleagues as the club aims to re-establish itself among Europe's elite. 'My role allows Monchi to be focused on the sporting and scouting side of football, creating and developing a strong network of scouts,' Vidagany said in 2023. 'We work as Batman and Robin because the structure of Villa needs to grow very fast.' In his current role at Southampton, Spors is keen to highlight that a large part of being a good sporting director is about appointing the right people and developing the club's structure. 'I think it's getting more and more important that you are simply a good leader for the organisation,' says Spors. 'This is the most important thing. There is such a diversity of clubs and how they see their identity, but diversity is always the best — it is important to have people from every background. Advertisement 'For example, data is obviously becoming more important in this space — especially with the rise of American ownership. When I arrived at Southampton, the first thing I did was to hire my assistant (Elliott Stapley), who was the former head of data and analytics at 777, and the second thing I did was to change the whole recruitment structure to make sure the data and analytics team were reporting to me.' Much like the role itself, measuring success depends on the context of the club. Silverware might be the ultimate physical representation of success, but victories can be just as important off the pitch as on it. 'This is a very technical job, so I need to innovate each department to make sure that we have a communication structure and a leadership structure with accountability in every department,' says Spors. 'The better we get there, the more we can increase the chance of on-pitch success.' For Boldt, who was sporting director at Hamburg from 2019 to 2024, the club's finances impacted much of his tenure. The 2021-22 financial year was the first time the club posted a positive annual profit in 12 years. 'My job was to make the club more stable, to recreate the identity, to develop young players and to help the coaches to do their job,' Boldt said. 'I'm not there anymore, but it's the same team, and this project together was four years in the making — and we can now see the output from their efforts.' Now, the structure of the club is in a far stronger position after securing a return to the Bundesliga this season following six seasons out of the top flight. Last year saw the club record a financial profit for the third year in a row, with its Volksparkstadion stadium debts paid off two years ahead of schedule. While Boldt was not the one holding the purse strings, Hamburg's financial landscape meant he had to be skilful in ensuring the club operated within its means when buying and selling players. Advertisement 'To have success, you have to be one step ahead. Sometimes, you need to let young players go to another club and give them space to develop (elsewhere) — but in football, nobody sees this as success because you're often linked to how many titles you won,' he says. 'For a sporting director or executive, we are responsible for the strategy and the vision of the club. I understand that you need results, but Hamburg is more stable than ever before, with less debt than ever before. If we had been promoted immediately (back to the Bundesliga), it would have likely been a disaster because the club was unstable, but now the base is so much stronger than the years before. That is success for me.' Stability should be synonymous with the role. It might sound obvious, but a sporting director needs to be in the position for the long term to implement such stability, which has not always been the case among some Premier League sides. Ashworth left Newcastle United before his short-lived stint at Manchester United, with his replacement Paul Mitchell announced that he was also parting company with Newcastle last month after less than a year in the role — leaving the club with the task of appointing their third sporting director in rapid succession. Liverpool's appointment of Hughes brought stability to the club last summer after a disruptive 18 months that saw Jorg Schmadtke hired on a short-term contract following the departure of previous sporting director Julian Ward — who had only replaced Michael Edwards a year before. Had a long-term sporting director been in place, the public contract sagas involving Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold might have been handled differently. The common thread is that nothing is ever guaranteed on the pitch, but the good sporting directors will find a way to control the controllable and give the club long-term improvement, regardless of short-term ups and downs. 'All I can do is try and increase the chance of success,' says Spors. 'As a sporting director, we can do much more than just sign players or a coach. We can build the culture. We can make sure every department is on the best level and is pushing to the next level.' 'Getting three points on a Saturday is just the result of all the work that sits behind it.'
The Sun
02-07-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
‘Disappointed' Pep Guardiola plotting major squad cull after crunch talks following embarrassing Club World Cup KO
PEP GUARDIOLA will hold crunch talks with Manchester City stars as he begins a 'tough' squad cull. The Club World Cup holders were surprisingly dumped out of the by Al Hilal on Tuesday night and now go into their summer break. 2 Guardiola named a squad of 27 players to travel to the USA – but left several more high-profile Man City names at home. But he felt that even that was too many. Pep said: 'We have a big squad and we'll see what happens. It's tough. I've no idea – we'll see with the club which ones. We'll talk with the players as well. 'But we'll rest, come back in the next few days and start the Premier League. The season will be so long and many things can happen. That's the reality. 'It's a really good squad but I'm disappointed for many players we would have loved to let them play but it wasn't possible. ' Director of football Txiki Begiristain will now leave his post – with his successor Hugo Viana helping to make the calls. Pep spent around £275million on signing eight new faces since the turn of the year – and some players will need to make way. He has generally liked to work with a squad containing around 20 or 21 outfield players along with a group of goalkeepers. England trio Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips were all left at home and are likely to go. Their Three Lions team-mate John Stones did not play a single minute in the tournament after fighting back from injury. He says he wants to stay but so too do Ilkay Gundogan and Ederson who are also heading into the last year of their contracts. Mateo Kovacic is currently out injured but could also be under threat due to the number of new midfielders who have arrived. England Under 21 skipper James McAtee is also up for grabs if a club can offer above £25m for him. Meanwhile Guardiola must decide whether to keep youngsters like Oscar Bobb, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis in the squad or send them out on loan. City flew back from their Miami training base on Tuesday and were due to land in the early hours of Wednesday. The players will now get a month off before returning to pre-season training – which should dispel concerns about fatigue next season. But skipper Bernardo Silva said there were no positives to take from their early exit. He said: 'Nobody wanted to lose, nobody wanted more vacations. We're very used to not having holidays because the schedule is crazy. 'But when we are in a competition we take it very seriously and we wanted to win it.'
New York Times
19-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Manchester City set to sign Freddie Lawrie, 16, from Aston Villa
Manchester City are set to bolster their youth ranks with the signing of Freddie Lawrie when his scholarship forms expire at Aston Villa. Lawrie joined Villa from Port Vale in September 2023 and by the end of August 2024 had made his debut for the England Under-16s. He has now made eight appearances for them. Advertisement The 16-year-old is most commonly deployed in central midfield but has also operated at centre-back for his national team. Lawrie's terms end this summer and Villa made him a strong offer to stay — but City are expected to capitalise, which will see them pay fellow Premier League side compensation. It is already turning into a busy summer for City, where sporting director Txiki Begiristain is being replaced by Hugo Viana but their work in the transfer market shows no sign of abating. While Viana is more focused on senior matters, he is said to have picked up where Begiristain left off in backing academy director Thomas Krucken, director of academy recruitment Sam Fagbemi and head of youth recruitment Carl Walker. They oversaw another successful season at age-group level. (Angel Martinez – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Daily Mail
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
INSIDE SPORT: Food and drink prices at Club World Cup revealed after Inter Miami's tournament opener - as event chiefs get a glimpse of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown
A nice touch at the European Clubs Association executive committee meeting in Miami on Friday. Outgoing Manchester City director of football Txiki Begiristain brought along his replacement, Hugo Viana and introduced the Portuguese to those present. FIFA secretary general Mattias Grafstrom delivered a presentation to the group, which included a video message from City's Erling Haaland along the lines of how much he was looking forward to taking part in the Club World Cup. The presentation also highlighted the sponsorship deals FIFA has secured with big-hitters including Bank of America and Michelob for the event, although insiders disclosed that there was no mention of ticket sales, which appeared to be the elephant in the room at the oceanside Grand Beach Hotel. Jason Gannon, Chelsea president and chief operating officer, also attended. FIFA officials were given a first-hand glimpse of Donald Trump 's immigration crackdown when a boat trip hosted by Telemundo to mark a year to go to the World Cup was the subject of a US Coast Guard raid. The mayor of Miam-Dade Daniella Levine Cava and a host of special guests of the American Spanish-language broadcaster, in smart dresses and suits, were on a luxury catamaran when it was unceremoniously stopped in the middle of the waters off Biscayne Bay while Coast Guard officers came onboard to check papers and carry put a search. Reports claim the inspection lasted for an hour, leading Telemundo to cancel the event and return to shore. There was no expense spared when FOX hosted their own year-to-go party on South Beach. FIFA chief Gianni Infantino joined VIPs for a show which included a performance from 'Tipsy' rapper Shaboozey and a spectacular drone show, with the devices lining up to spell out the names of Club World Cup sponsors. While the tickets may have ended up heavily reduced, as FIFA successfully scrambled to fill the stands at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium for the tournament opener, the same could not be said of the food and drink. A can of Heineken at the Inter Miami versus Al Ahly stalemate cost no less than $14 (£10.32) while a chicken bowl came in at $22.50 (£16.59). A goalless draw may not have been on FIFA's menu, but officials may well have breathed a sigh of relief at the attendance for the first match. The official figure of 60,927 appeared generous, but fears of half empty stands were averted on a balmy night in South Florida. Organisers will also be pleased that there was no repeat of the chaotic scenes a year ago at the same stadium when ticketless fans tried to storm their way into the Copa America final between Argentina and Colombia. A ring of steel consisting of police checkpoints ensured that only those with tickets were allowed anywhere near the venue. Ref cam was a positive addition, with those watching on TV given an up close view of what Aussie whistleblower Alireza Faghani saw when he gave a first-half penalty. The Football Supporters' Association has thrown its weight behind the National League's '3UP' campaign. The scandalous situation, which sees only two clubs promoted into League Two, continues, and it is to be hoped that backing from the fans can heap pressure on the EFL. This season, York City finished 13 points clear of third place with 96 points but were thrashed 3-0 at home by Oldham Athletic, who went on to win the play-off final, and missed out on promotion. Change is needed, urgently. British Olympic Association chiefs were amongst the first to get an audience with new IOC president Kirsty Coventry in Lausanne last week. With Coventry set to take the reins from current IOC president Thomas Bach, the delegation met with both the ongoing and incoming president to discuss the future of the Olympic movement. It was also BOA chairperson Katherine Grainger's first formal engagement with the IOC, as both her, chief executive Andy Anson and chief operating officer Shahab Uddin took an early opportunity to solidify relations between the UK and the IOC. Signatures are now being sought to reach the requisite 180 for an MCC special general meeting to try to establish 'Lord's plc.' A group of members want the 238-year-old club to become a public limited company, with each subsequently becoming the proud owner of a share those involve estimate would be worth £50-100,000. Should the magic 180 figure be reached, a two-thirds majority would then be needed to change the rules.
New York Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Manchester City Transfer DealSheet: Summer window latest, key positions and available players
Manchester City have just experienced their toughest season under Pep Guardiola, and the summer is expected to see numerous changes among the playing and coaching staff as they look to bounce back from it. Albeit a third-place finish in the Premier League and being runners-up in the FA Cup being seen a disappointments shows the standards set since Guardiola arrived nine years ago, but however it is looked at, their struggles last season need rectifying. Advertisement There are already changes being announced among the coaching staff, and on the pitch, following several signings in the January window, City will bring in some new faces, while losing others. Here, The Athletic looks at what to expect from the deposed champions' summer. Summer 2025 marks a period of transition for City in this regard. Txiki Begiristain, who was director of football at Barcelona between 2003 and 2010 and has held the same title at City since 2012, is leaving after the Club World Cup, which runs to July 13. He is being replaced by Hugo Viana, who was expected to see out the season with Sporting CP but left the Portuguese club at the end of the January window and officially started work at City in April. The club have been doing all they can to ensure a smooth handover, which is why Begiristain is staying on until after the upcoming competition in the United States, with the new mini-transfer window before that tournament being a key time to make moves. City Football Group chief executive Ferran Soriano remains in place, but Riccardo Bigon is another fresh voice in the decision-making ranks. He was appointed City Football Group's new global football technical director in October after six years as sporting director at Italian club Bologna. There is the possibility that Ederson, their first-choice goalkeeper of the past eight years, could leave, so a new face at that position might be on the cards. Stefan Ortega is an able deputy but the German also left his future in doubt over recent months. So, too, are the full-back positions, where Guardiola took to deploying midfielders Matheus Nunes and Nico O'Reilly due to the lack of options over the season's final months. We reported on Monday that City are pursuing a deal to sign Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers. Advertisement The gaping hole left by club great Kevin De Bruyne, who announced in April that he is leaving City this summer at the end of his contract, also needs to be filled. There is unlikely to be one single player who can replicate his creative output, so a mixture of ones already at the club and a couple of additions looks to be the formula. Another wide player is also likely, with Jack Grealish's slide down the pecking order leaving only Jeremy Doku and Savinho as conventional wingers. To condense the squad. In an era where most elite managers are pleading for bigger squads to cope with the relentless schedule at the top of the game, Guardiola is railing against that thinking. 'I don't want to leave five or six players in the tribune (stand, having been left out of the matchday squad),' he said, after the 3-1 win against Bournemouth in May. 'I don't want that. I will quit. Make a shorter squad, I will stay. I don't want to have 24, 25, 26 players when everyone is fit. If I have injuries, (then we're) unlucky; we have some players from the academy, and we do it.' As well as Ait-Nouri, City are keen on Milan's Tijjani Reijnders. The Netherlands international recently named Serie A midfielder of the year would fill one of the No 8 spots that City are lacking players for. Turning 27 in July, Reijnders is entering his peak years compared to would-be team-mates Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva, who will be 35 and 31 respectively early next season. City were interested in Bayer Leverkusen playmaker Florian Wirtz, but Liverpool appear to be his preferred destination. They are exploring a deal for Lyon's Rayan Cherki, while Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White is another player City under consideration to bolster their midfield options. Ederson is open to a move to the Saudi Pro League, which could have happened last summer had a club there met City's valuation. He only has one year remaining on his contract. Grealish is another who could fetch a significant fee. He was a spare part for most of last season, starting only seven Premier League games, being left on the bench 12 times and failing to make the squad on the final day of the season with Champions League qualification at stake. Advertisement Fellow England international John Stones could potentially move on if clubs come in with the right sort of offers. He managed only 13 starts in all competitions last season and with Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Manuel Akanji, Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov to pick from, City may be carrying an extra central-defensive body when everyone is fit. Claudio Echeverri could be a player City Football Group uses its network to develop. He was signed from River Plate in January 2024 but was loaned back to them so he could play first-team minutes in Argentina. He eventually made his City debut as a substitute in the FA Cup final defeat last month, in which he spurned several big chances, and it could be that the 19-year-old is one who needs to play more before being expected to perform in the Premier League. Agreements still need to be reached between City and Wolves for Ait-Nouri, but all parties now expect a move to happen. City also had an opening bid for Rejnders rejected last week, and the clubs remain apart on a fee. Rejnders only signed a new deal in March, which ties him to Milan until 2030, so they are keen to extract top value for one of their star players. It is expected that City will return with an improved offer. City are in a healthy position, even after their £183million ($248m) January spree. They should be able to invest heavily this summer in refreshing the squad. In the three years to the end of last season, City booked a cumulative pre-tax profit of £195.9million. Using a combination of estimates and figures disclosed in the accounts, The Athletic's BookKeeper projected City's PSR headroom in last season's calculation came to around £324m. The fees for Nico Gonzalez, Omar Marmoush, Khusanov and Reis will be spread across four and a half years, and City also brought in big money by selling Julian Alvarez, Joao Cancelo and Liam Delap. (Top photos: Reijnders, left, and Gibbs-White; Getty Images)
