Harry Redknapp once branded them a “joke” while Sir Alex Ferguson declared that “the most important person at the football club is always the manager”.
However, those views now belong to a bygone era. Sporting directors are now prized commodities that excite a fanbase and garner as much attention as any new player.
It’s a topic that has been brought into focus this week after Dan Ashworth, Newcastle United’s sporting director, was placed on gardening leave on Sunday after asking to leave. Manchester United are keen to appoint him in the same role.
Liverpool, who will need a new manager in the summer when Jurgen Klopp stands down, are also in the market for a new sporting director. Jorg Schmadtke departed at the end of January following his short stint.
English football is playing catch up with Europe, where the sporting director role has been deeply embedded for many years. There, they are viewed as the public face of the club, often fielding media questions before and after a match instead of the manager.
As clubs flutter their eyelashes, The Athletic examines the main players, assesses their status and explores why they have become so highly sought after.
On the move
Dan Ashworth (Newcastle United)
Ashworth has been the trailblazer for sporting directors in England. The 52-year-old is under contract at Newcastle until 2025 and that makes it likely Manchester United will have to pay hefty compensation to bring him in, with Newcastle wanting £20million ($25m) for him.
As explained in this profile, his role at Newcastle involved overseeing the club’s “overarching sporting strategy, football development and recruitment at all ages”. Before that, he held similar positions at Brighton, the FA — where he helped develop the “England DNA” — and at West Bromwich Albion. While at the FA, Ashworth set up a course for club-level sporting directors.
When asked to pin down exactly what a sporting director does, Ashworth told The Athletic in a 2021 interview: “It is somebody responsible to the board for the football strategy who then employs experts at their particular role and lets them get on with it. That is the key bit because I am not a first-team manager and coach. I’ve never been one and I don’t want to be one.”
Or, as he put it in another interview, “I sit in the middle of a wheel and my job is to bring together different departments, connecting those spokes.”
In demand
Michael Edwards (set up Ludonautics, an advisory service)
Edwards, who was at Liverpool for more than 10 years before his departure in 2022, was credited with playing a major role in the club’s success that saw them win the Premier League and Champions League.
Edwards identified Klopp to replace Brendan Rodgers in 2015 and helped bring in signings such as Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Alisson and Virgil van Dijk, who turned around the club’s fortunes. He was equally astute at offloading unwanted players for tidy profits, including Jordon Ibe and Brad Smith to Bournemouth for a combined £21m, Kevin Stewart to Hull City for £8m and Danny Ward to Leicester for £12.5m. He also moved out Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for £142m. Not every signing worked — Lazar Markovic for £20m, for example.
Edwards, left, with Klopp and FSG president Mike Gordon (John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Before arriving at Liverpool in 2011, Edwards also worked at Portsmouth, when they took on Prozone, the football data company. While at Tottenham, he was headhunted by Liverpool’s then-director of football Damien Comolli as part of a drive by Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, to introduce a new data-led approach. He became sporting director at Liverpool in 2016.
After leaving Liverpool, he was approached for the sporting director role at many other top European sides, including Chelsea.
However, his return to football in 2023 instead saw him set up Ludonautics, an advisory service, alongside the club’s former director of research, Ian Graham. Last month, he turned down the chance to return to Liverpool. Mike Gordon, president of FSG, had sounded out Edwards to see if he might consider taking on a senior position with the club or inside FSG.
Tim Steidten (West Ham United)
Steidten has been an important figure behind the scenes at West Ham following his appointment as technical director in July.
He previously worked at Werder Bremen, where he landed Kevin De Bruyne and Serge Gnabry, and Bayer Leverkusen, the club he left in March 2023.
Steidten with Moyes (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Last summer, he persuaded Mohammed Kudus and Edson Alvarez to ignore interest from Chelsea and Bayern Munich respectively and join West Ham. Steidten, 44, has helped strengthen the recruitment team following the additions of Moritz Steidten, his brother, as head of international scouting, and Maximilian Hahn, as head of technical recruitment and analysis — both of whom joined from his former club, Werder Bremen.
There has reportedly been interest from elsewhere. Should West Ham decide to replace Moyes, Steidten will play a key role in picking his successor.
Phil Giles (Brentford)
Giles, who grew up as a Newcastle fan, became Brentford’s co-director of football with Rasmus Andersen on May 16, 2015, the day after they lost to Middlesbrough in the Championship play-off semi-finals.
Giles had worked closely with Brentford’s owner Matthew Benham for the betting company Smartodds and was tasked with ensuring the club moved to a data-led approach to recruitment.
One of his first decisions with Andersen was to replace head coach Mark Warburton with Marinus Dijkhuizen, a move that backfired spectacularly as the Dutchman was sacked nine games into the 2015-16 season.
Giles was involved in the decision to shut down Brentford’s academy in 2016 and set up a ‘B team’. It was criticised at the time but the B team has gone on to produce several players for the first-team squad, including Mads Roerslev. Premier League rules dictate all clubs must operate at least a Category 3 academy by the start of the 2024-25 season, so Giles has restored their original setup.
Ankersen left Brentford in December 2021 to become chief executive of Sport Republic, which took over Southampton a month later. Since then, Giles has been in sole charge of the day-to-day operations at Brentford, responsible for signing players, negotiating contracts and overseeing the redevelopment of the training ground. He is supported by technical director Lee Dykes and the pair have a close relationship with Benham and head coach Thomas Frank.
Giles has overseen a period of huge success at the club, with promotion to the Premier League and a ninth-placed finish in the 2022-23 season.
Luis Campos (Paris Saint-Germain)
Campos is at PSG in his unusual role as a “football advisor.”
He does not work full-time at the club but rather as a consultant on a part-time basis. This has allowed him the flexibility to work with other clubs, such as Turkish side Galatasaray, in recent years, while his position at PSG until recently ran alongside his advisory work with La Liga side Celta Vigo. They ended the unhappy relationship at the end of last year.
Before linking up with PSG, Campos won praise for scouting talent. At Monaco, he discovered players such as Fabinho and Bernardo Silva. At Lille, he signed Victor Osimhen. At both clubs, he built a reputation for signing hugely talented players and flipping them for sizeable profits.
After joining PSG in the summer of 2022 largely to appease Kylian Mbappe, who last week announced he would leave the club this summer, Campos was entrusted with reshaping the PSG project. This came after president Nasser Al-Khelaifi said he didn’t want “flashy, bling-bling” at the club anymore.
Campos, who is still based in Monaco, helped PSG bring in Randal Kolo Muani, Goncalo Ramos, Manuel Ugarte, Lucas Hernandez and Ousmane Dembele during a busy summer transfer window.
Under Luis Enrique, who replaced the sacked Christophe Galtier — with whom Campos worked at Lille — they are top of Ligue 1 again. However, they will be judged by their success in the Champions League, the trophy that continues to elude them.
Campos, who is not afraid of the limelight, has frequently worked with fellow countryman Jorge Mendes, the ‘super-agent’ whose influence has grown at PSG since Campos came in.
Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)
Berta has been at Atletico for a decade, first as technical director for four years and then as sporting director since 2017.
In that time, Atletico have reached two Champions League finals (2014 and 2016) and won La Liga twice (in 2014 and 2021) under Diego Simeone. However, the relationship between Berta and Simeone has not always been smooth sailing.
The Italian, a former banker who also worked at Parma and Genoa, runs the club’s scouting network and has overseen signings such as Antoine Griezmann and Jan Oblak. He has also sold Hernandez, Rodri and others for huge profits. He was named best sporting director at the Globe Soccer Awards in 2019.
However he, along with CEO Gil Marin, gambled big on Joao Felix — for a club-record transfer worth €126million (£113m; $136m) in 2019 — a move that’s never quite clicked. Simeone has remained unconvinced about the Portugal international. Earlier this season, Atletico considered bringing in Mateu Alemany to take charge of the sporting side of the club after he left Barcelona but that never happened. Berta retained his power.
His name has been linked with the sporting director jobs at Chelsea and Manchester United.
Richard Hughes (Bournemouth)
Born in Scotland, Hughes grew up in Italy and spent the majority of his midfield career on England’s south coast at Bournemouth and Portsmouth.
After hanging up his boots, he joined Bournemouth’s recruitment team under Eddie Howe before rising to become the club’s technical director.
He was the main driver over the summer to replace Gary O’Neil with Andoni Iraola, a gamble that could be starting to pay off, and has overseen a data-driven approach to transfers. This has seen Illia Zabarnyi, Dominic Solanke, Nathan Ake and Aaron Ramsdale join the club in recent years.
Hughes has also emerged as a contender for the sporting director job at Liverpool, as well as a replacement for Ashworth at Newcastle given his close ties to Howe.
Without a club
Julian Ward
Ward stepped down as Liverpool’s sporting director in May last year after 12 months in the role following an 11-year stint at the club.
His decision to quit in November 2022 was met with surprise at the club — the expectation was he would stick around for the long term after spending time as Edwards’ assistant. FSG tried to persuade him to stay but his mind was made up.
Ward, who had acted as Liverpool’s scouting manager for Spain and Portugal, was instrumental in bringing Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez to the club from Porto and Benfica. He sold a waning Mane to Bayern Munich, negotiated Liverpool’s £44million signing of Cody Gakpo and sorted out the long-running contract saga involving Salah. However, his August deadline-day loan signing of Arthur from Juventus proved disastrous as the injury-prone Brazilian played just 13 minutes for the club.
Julian Ward, right, with Gordon and Klopp in 2022 (Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Ward turned down the chance to join Ajax last summer and also emerged as a candidate for the sporting director role at Manchester United.
Ward, who worked as a South American scouting strategist at Manchester City before Liverpool, is taking his time over where he goes next, with importance placed on the scope of the role, which he doesn’t want to be solely transfer-focused.
Paul Mitchell
Mitchell has been out of work since leaving his role at Ligue 1 side Monaco last year.
The Mancunian, who played for Wigan Athletic and MK Dons as a player, held recruitment roles at MK Dons, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and RB Leipzig before joining Monaco in 2020.
He helped identify Mane and Dusan Tadic at Southampton, Son Heung-min, Toby Alderweireld and Dele Alli at Spurs, Christopher Nkunku and Tyler Adams at RB Leipzig and Axel Disasi at Monaco. He also revamped recruitment departments, earmarked young talent and tried to revolutionise the playing style at those clubs.
“We check everything we can,” Mitchell once explained to The Athletic. “Recruiting is like buying a house — it’s a long-term financial commitment. Before buying a house, you check as much as you can. We do the same.”
In July 2022, Mitchell told The Athletic he was keen on a return to the Premier League at some point in the future.
Frederic ‘Ricky’ Massara
Massara was most recently sporting director at AC Milan, a position he held from 2019 to 2023.
In 2022, AC Milan won their first Serie A title in 11 years and Massara, along with technical director and legendary former player Paulo Maldini, were credited with bringing in young talents Theo Hernandez, Rafael Leao and Fikayo Tomori. The double act won the sporting director of the year prize at the 2022 Globe Soccer Awards.
However, they failed to build on that success, with Divock Origi’s arrival on a four-year deal an example of the messy recruitment drive that summer. After Milan dropped from first to fourth, Massara and Maldini were sacked by owner Gerry Cardinale, the RedBird Capital founder, in June 2023.
Before AC Milan, Massara had twice worked as sporting director at Roma, including after Monchi’s departure.
He has most recently been linked with the sporting director vacancy at Liverpool.
Rising stars
Florent Ghisolfi (Nice)
Ghisolfi, 38, joined INEOS’ Nice as their sporting director in October 2022 after being poached from the same role at Lens. He was seen as playing a key role in Lens’ exciting rise that saw them reach the Champions League and push PSG for the title.
At Nice, Ghisolfi was joined by his former colleague at Lens, Laurent Bessiere, now Nice’s performance director, as well as Fabrice Bocquet, former Lorient chief executive. Francesco Farioli, Nice’s 34-year-old manager, has impressed following his appointment in the summer.
Ghisolfi helped Nice revamp their recruitment structure, bringing in exciting young players such as Terem Moffi and Khephren Thuram. They are third in Ligue 1.
Ghisolfi helped Lens qualify for the Champions League before joining Nice (Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images)
Since then, he has attracted the attention of Liverpool, who rate him very highly. RedBird Capital, which has a stake in FSG, owns Toulouse in Ligue 1 and its executives are admirers of the Frenchman.
However, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS, which owns a 25 per cent stake in Manchester United, would not be keen on him joining their arch-rivals.
Simon Rolfes (Bayer Leverkusen)
A former midfielder for Bayer Leverkusen, Rolfes initially returned to the club as their academy manager in 2018. He was promoted to the role of managing director for sport in 2022, replacing Rudi Voller.
One of his first big decisions was to give Xabi Alonso, then coaching Real Sociedad’s B team, his first role in management. “Experience doesn’t trump quality,” Rolfes said.
Since then, Bayer have enjoyed a remarkable ride, going from the relegation zone to leading the Bundesliga. They are eight points clear of Thomas Tuchel’s Bayern Munich.
Rolfes helped lead an impressive summer of recruitment, using the funds from the sale of Moussa Diaby to Aston Villa for €60million to sign central midfielder Granit Xhaka and striker Victor Boniface. Wing-back Alejandro Grimaldo, a free transfer from Benfica, has been a standout player too.
He has spoken about how Leverkusen use artificial intelligence to scout players. Rolfes enjoys a strong relationship with Alonso and Fernando Carro, the club’s Spanish CEO, and recently renewed his contract until 2028.
Staying put
Edu (Arsenal)
Edu, who was one of Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’, became Arsenal’s first sporting director in 2022 after holding the position of technical director.
When the Brazilian first returned to the club, Arsenal were drifting and directionless. However, the appointment of Mikel Arteta, who was in part persuaded to join by Edu, and his role in building a talented young squad has shifted the outlook in north London. They are now challenging for a Premier League title for the second successive season.
Edu, who oversees Arsenal’s men’s, women’s and academy teams, helped offload high earners such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette while signing Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Jesus and Declan Rice and tying down Bukayo Saka and William Saliba to long-term deals.
Communication is deemed to be one of Edu’s greatest strengths and he always meets face-to-face when trying to persuade players to join. He still has to prove he can effectively sell players to help generate the revenue to allow Arsenal to continue spending.
In November, he was named best European director at Tuttosport’s Golden Boy awards.
Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Begiristain joined Manchester City as their sporting director in 2012 and played a huge role in persuading his friend Pep Guardiola to join the club.
Begiristain, inspired by Johan Cruyff and one of the Dutchman’s first signings for Barcelona in 1988, initially held the same position at Barcelona, where gave Guardiola his first job in management.
Working alongside Guardiola, chief executive Ferran Soriano and the recently departed chief football operations officer Omar Berrada, they have established City as the dominant team in English football over the last decade, with the club winning the treble last season. Off the pitch, the club boast a state-of-the-art academy and the City Football Group now has 13 clubs under its umbrella.
Speaking last month after Berrada’s move to Manchester United, Guardiola paid tribute to Begiristain. He said: “If you take a look at the clubs who have success, they have had the same sporting director or hierarchy for a long time. Building something takes time. Txiki has been massively important at this club.”
Christoph Freund (Bayern Munich)
Freund, 46, joined Bayern Munich on September 1, 2023, after spending 17 years at Red Bull Salzburg. It’s been a tough season for the German champions, with Leverkusen widening their gap at the top and yesterday’s news that head coach Thomas Tuchel will stand down at the end of the season.
The Austrian succeeded Ralf Rangnick as sporting director at Salzburg in 2015 after working his way up the ranks. In his time there, he was influential in signing Erling Haaland, Mane, Dayot Upamecano, Naby Keita and Dominik Szoboszlai.
He was heavily linked with the Chelsea vacancy in September 2022 but turned them down. Before that, he also rejected Ajax to stay with Salzburg.
Freund was part of the network of Red Bull clubs (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
Freund, together with Salzburg’s former academy manager Ernst Tanner, discovered Haaland playing for Molde.
“We first noticed him in 2016 at a game for Norway’s under-16s,” Freund previously said. “Because it was difficult to get recordings of his games, we had it filmed. He convinced us right from the start, so the scout contacted him and his father.”
Deco (Barcelona)
In 2004, Deco was one of Joan Laporta’s marquee signings to bring Barcelona back to European football’s elite. He helped Barca win the Champions League in 2006 during a memorable time in the club’s history. A mixed spell at Chelsea followed before he set up a football agency.
As soon as Laporta was re-elected as Barcelona president back in 2021, he wanted to bring Deco back into his new project. After starting as Barcelona’s main scout in the Brazilian market, Deco became a key figure in brokering the deal that brought Raphinha from Leeds to Camp Nou in 2022. A year later, he was appointed as the club’s sporting director to replace Alemany, who came close to joining Aston Villa in the summer.
He will have to find a replacement for Xavi in the summer, while also reducing expenditure as Barcelona are spending double what they are permitted by the league’s salary cap. Big sales can be expected and any new signings will need to be smart pieces of business to get the approval of La Liga.
It’s a huge challenge.
Monchi (Aston Villa)
Viewed as the godfather of the role, Monchi is now at Aston Villa, where he is trying to rebuild his reputation after a bruising experience at Roma.
Villa manager Unai Emery worked with Monchi at Sevilla, the club he first joined in 2000. Monchi was ahead of the curve with his use of sophisticated scouting and statistical data analysis. He was credited with unearthing gems such as Dani Alves, Ivan Rakitic, Frederic Kanoute, Julio Baptista and Luis Fabiano as the Spanish club enjoyed incredible success in the Europa League. He also sold Sergio Ramos, Jesus Navas, Luis Alberto and Jose Antonio Reyes for big money but found replacements to keep Sevilla competitive.
However, on returning to Sevilla from Roma, it was felt he had lost his magic touch as the club’s ageing squad found themselves languishing in the bottom half of the table — even though they won another Europa League in 2023.
His time at Roma, from 2017 to 2019, was a disappointment. He blew the transfer budget on the injury-prone Javier Pastore on a five-year contract for €24.7million, Patrik Schick for €42m and Steven Nzonzi from old club Sevilla for €26.6m while selling Salah (€42.5m) and Alisson (€72.5m) to Liverpool. He ended up leaving Roma two years into a four-year deal.
Looking back over the signings in 2021, then-owner Jim Pallotta said: “I’m going to have f****** nightmares with this stuff.”
He added: “I should have realised that he calls himself Monchi… it’s like calling yourself Madonna. That should have been a warning sign.”
(Top image — Luis Campos, Paul Mitchell and Dan Ashworth; Getty Images)
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