Director of Football - Notable Directors of Football

Notable Directors of Football

People associated with football who have held the role as director of football or sporting director include:

• Klaus Allofs: Has been holding the position at Werder Bremen since 1999
• Frank Arnesen: Former director of football at Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, currently in the position at Hamburger SV since 2011
• Ron Atkinson: The former Manchester United, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest manager, had previously performed the role at Coventry City and Kettering Town. He is now in the position at Halesowen Town
• Eric Cantona: Currently serving in the position at New York Cosmos
• Pantaleo Corvino: Currently serving in the position at Fiorentina, he gained a reputation for scouting new talents at Lecce
• Damien Comolli: Director of football at Liverpool from 2010 until 12th April 2012
• Steve Coppell: Current director of football at Crawley Town
• Rui Costa: Currently serving at Benfica where he finished his playing career in 2008
• Costinha: The former player is currently in the role at Sporting CP
• Ramón Rodríguez: Currently serving in the position at Sevilla
• Barry Fry: Currently director of football at Peterborough United since 2006
• Umberto Gandini: Currently performing the role at Milan
• Avram Grant: Director of football at Chelsea between July and September 2007 and at Portsmouth between October and November 2009; stepped in as a manager on both occasions
• Nick Hammond: Current director of football Reading since 2003
• Andy Hessenthaler: Currently Director of Football at Gillingham
• Fernando Hierro: Current director of football at Málaga
• Martin Hinshelwood: Currently director of football at Brighton & Hove Albion since 2009
• Uli Hoeneß: Performed the Sporting Director responsibilities in his role as General Manager of Bayern Munich; the position he had between 1979 and 2009
• Mo Johnston: Formerly served as Director of Soccer at Toronto FC
• Mladen Krstajić: Was promoted to the role at Partizan in 2011 when he finished his playing career
• Jim Leishman: Currently serving in the position at Dunfermline Athletic
• Pierpaolo Marino: Currently serving in the position at Atalanta
• Giuseppe Marotta: Currently serving in the position at Juventus
• Willie Miller: Director of Footballing Operations at Aberdeen
• Gerry Murphy: Was promoted to the position at Huddersfield Town in January 2007 after serving 19 years as Academy Director. He retired from his role in February 2009.
• Gianluca Nani: Joined West Ham United in March 2008 as Technical Director. He carries out several responsibilities of a Sporting Director. He was dismissed from this role in February 2010.
• David Pleat: Having formerly performed the role at Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest, he is now in the position at Marbella
• John Rudge: Currently director of football at Stoke City since 1999
• Matthias Sammer: Former director of football at the German Football Association (DFB). Since 2012 director of football at Bayern Munich
• Earnie Stewart: Under the title of "technical director", the former United States national team star has fulfilled the responsibilities of a sporting director at his former clubs VVV-Venlo and NAC Breda. He was named to the same position at AZ Alkmaar in June 2010.
• Rudi Völler: director of football at Bayer Leverkusen from 1996 to 2000 and again since 2005, stepping in as a caretaker manager on one occasion
• Mickey Walker: Currently director of football at Doncaster Rovers since 2006
• Mark Warburton: Currently sporting director at Brentford since 2011
• Zlatko Zahovič: Currently Director of Football at Maribor
• Rado Vidosic: Currently Technical Director at Brisbane Roar
• Zinedine Zidane: Current director of football at Real Madrid
• Michael Zorc: Has been in the role at Borussia Dortmund since 1998
• Mike Fursman: Currently serving as Director of Football at MNFG