Minnesota United Announce Khaled El-Ahmad As Sporting Director
Minnesota United FC will begin a new era of soccer in 2024. In the first front office hiring since the departure of head coach Adrian Heath, Minnesota United have announced that Khaled El-Ahmad will take over as the club’s Sporting Director and Chief Soccer Officer. El-Ahmad will now take charge in leading the Loons forward as they look to find their next manager and look to win their first silverware on the field.
In comparison to players or managers, Sporting Directors are harder to analyze at the time of hiring in my opinion. Even with the points of looking at former clubs that they worked and at analyzing those club’s successes… doesn’t always paint the proper picture. It takes buy-in from the club’s ownership, relationship with the Sporting Director, connection to coaching, and play on the soccer field to all wrap up into success. Even with all of that… luck is needed as well. But if we take a look at El-Ahmad’s resume he has had some success. He began in the summer of 2011 being hired as Chief Scout at Djurgarden in the Allsvenskan (Swedish top division). From there he would make the move and get hired as the Chief Marketing Officer at IK Sirius in the Allsvenskan. But the big move for him came in the summer of 2021 when he would be hired as CEO of Barnsley FC in England. Unfortunately, the success didn’t happen on the field for Barnsley as they were relegated from the English Championship in El-Ahmad’s first season there. Barnsley continues to operate within the English League One as the CEO departs England to return to the United States. And yes… I said return.
El-Ahmad was a former NCAA soccer player where from 2001-2004 he played for the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee where he would win four Horizon League regular season titles, four Horizon League tournament titles, as well as being named to the All-Horizon League 2nd team twice. He knows soccer here in the United States. Before his time in leadership roles in Europe, he served as the Director of CONCACAF for City Football Group. Even during his time at Barnsley FC, he would be part of the group that hired Neill Collins as the club’s manager. Collins was the Manager at the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the USL Championship prior. There should be some excitement around the hiring of Khaled El-Ahmad. He is someone who has been in charge of clubs before, he knows the region, and I think he is just taking the next step in his career being hired at Minnesota United.
