Sporting KC
Sporting KC Hire David Lee as President of Soccer Operations
The title doesn’t matter, David Lee is the Chief Soccer Officer of Sporting KC and he’s making all the soccer decisions now.
The wait to hire a Chief Soccer Officer (CSO) President of Soccer Operations is over. On Tuesday, Sporting Kansas City announced David Lee will fill the role, as well as hold the title of General Manager.
He’s signed to a seven-year contract through 2032.
Don’t let the titles throw you off, Lee is over everything soccer, according to the press release.
“Lee will serve as the club’s chief soccer officer and will play an executive leadership role in all areas of Sporting’s soccer enterprise, including first-team roster management, player recruitment, scouting, analytics, technical staff oversight and the continued development of Sporting KC II and the Sporting KC Academy. He will report directly to the club’s ownership group and will oversee Sporting Director Mike Burns and interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin.”
Lee joins Sporting KC after spending 11 years with New York City FC, most recently as their Sporting Director. He was added to their staff in 2014 as the Director of Player Recruitment, ahead of their debut season in MLS in 2015. Lee was promoted to Technical Director in 2017 and promoted again to Sporting Director in 2019.
“As we enter a new era for Sporting Kansas City, this is the most important decision we could make,” Co-Principal Owner Michael Illig said. “After a six-month global search, David was the clear and undeniable choice. He will lead our soccer operation with our full trust and confidence. David brings fresh vision, global experience and relentless ambition. With his leadership, we are committed to building a team that reflects the pride of our community while striving for the highest levels of Major League Soccer. This is the beginning of a new chapter for Sporting Kansas City and one that we believe will carry our club into a future of renewed success and shared pride with our supporters.”
NYCFC have had 17 Homegrown players in their history, with Lee signing 14 of them.
His career started overseas in England, where he is from, before coming to work with the New York Red Bulls in 2011. He was a Performance Analyst for their 2013 Supporters’ Shield winning squad. And Lee has quite the track record since taking over the head job at NYCFC. As Tom Bogert pointed out, “NYCFC has most points in MLS since Lee took over as CSO in 2020.”
Lee’s background is in analytics, and Mike Illig said when they sought to hire someone, they are a technology company, and they want to leverage that. Lee has a master’s degree in performance analysis of sport from the University of Wales in Cardiff. He also held a role at Exeter City as the Head of Performance Analysis (2009-2011) and Performance Analyst for Hartpury Football Academy before coming to the Red Bulls and then NYCFC.
“Sporting Kansas City has a proud history, a passionate fanbase and a winning culture,” Lee said. “I want to thank the ownership group for this special opportunity and look forward to building on the strong foundation that has been established in this great soccer city. I am excited to work with the players, coaches and staff to achieve our shared ambitions, and I look forward to meeting our incredible fans.”
According to the press release from NYCFC, “Lee’s last day at New York City FC will be Monday, October 6. New York City FC has begun their search for a new Sporting Director and will update fans as soon as the right candidate has been identified. ” He’s set for his introductory press conference with Kansas City on the 8th.
Now it’s time for Lee to get to work. The team has 17 players they can make decisions on this offseason. Lee will also have to decide on keeping Sporting Director Mike Burns and hire a full-time coach, as well as staff for both the first and second teams.
This story has been updated with quotes from the NYCFC press release.
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I am quite pleased and very excited by this because 1) his track record speaks volumes (I could talk forever about the inaugural nycfc roster build just for starters) and 2) he must be getting a fuckton of leeway to do whatever he wants and make major institutional changes if he left his current role for this.
I am seated and ready for the bloodbath/phoenix rising/whatthefuckever is going to happen this off season.
LFG!!!
Yeah, at first glance this feels like a good choice. I certainly squint and imagine a guy like this ready to get out from under the umbrella of a larger machine and really spread his wings as THE guy.
This makes me very worried. NYCFC – in addition to stealing SKC’s kits and playing in a weird baby park – are part of City Football Group and I could easily see this man struggling to replicate the successes on his CV without the backing of a global soccer enterprise with unlimited money.
On the other hand, an optimist could argue that he’s now free of being a cog within the larger machine of CFG and now gets to actually make his own decisions without being the equivalent of a AAA baseball general manager. I note that most NYCFC supporters in places like Reddit are giving him the most credit when it comes to identifying, developing, and signing homegrowns, and that’s a sensible focus for SKC, since we’re not going to be throwing CFG money at global DPs anytime soon.
Heck Yeah!! I was prepared to be completely underwhelmed…I am so happy to be totally wrong. This is an outstanding hire.
SKC ownership finally did something to get excited about.
This is promising…first time in forever. Let’s go SKC!
I am, bare minimum, thoroughly whelmed. Time will tell if we hit the over.
This seems like the right move. I like that he was actively in a director role, not available for hire due to a firing (no shade at Burns, but that was concerning to me). Also, NYCFC have been pretty consistently good over that stretch of time and won trophies multiple times. This is a club that was winning a trophy nearly every other year for 6 years and now haven’t had even a whiff of glory in the past 6 seasons. This feels like a big shift from ownership to actively persuade someone to leave their club to come to the dumpster fire that we are. I don’t think he would’ve come if he didn’t have the desire to turn the ship around.
This seems good. It is good that defined lines for leadership has been drawn. It is good to hear that they have someone in place.
The quote from Tom Bogert, ” NYCFC has the most points in MLS since Lee took over as CSO in 2020″ is great to read. They have won an MLS in that time. They are 3rd in the Eastern conference right now too. Good stuff.
Now they can announce the coach next. This offseason will be fun to watch.
I’m relieved. It has been so bare bones. Now let him immediately hire like 10 people so that there is an actual staff again that can hit the ground running in the off-season.
Jake Reid needs to go as well.
The David Gass quote is my fav so far: “This is probably better than what I would have guessed is a best-case scenario for SKC.”