Inside the world of sporting directors: What do they do? And what makes a good one?

深入体育总监的世界：他们做什么？如何成为优秀的体育总监？

By Mark Carey July 20, 2025 12:14 pm

Players are the focus of any football transfer storyline.

球员是任何足球转会故事的核心焦点。

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.

当然，主教练、经纪人和俱乐部老板也为故事增添了复杂性，但有一个相对较新的角色随着每个转会窗而获得越来越多的关注——体育总监。

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.

从根本上说，体育总监的职责是充当教练组与俱乐部管理层之间的桥梁，在俱乐部的足球运营中提供连续性、可持续性和稳定的战略。

"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."

“体育总监是俱乐部文化的守护者，”尤文图斯总经理、曾担任费内巴切、利物浦、圣埃蒂安和热刺体育或足球总监的达米安·科莫利说道。“我们需要确保短期、中期和长期目标得到同等程度的关注。”

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.

虽然在21世纪初的英超联赛中体育总监还很稀缺，但他们如今已成为顶级俱乐部的标配，其中许多人的名字为球迷所熟知。

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.

去年十月，特希基·贝吉里斯坦宣布将在今夏离开效力12年的曼城，由乌戈·维亚纳接任。在城市的另一边，丹·阿什沃斯在担任曼联体育总监仅五个月后离职引发了巨大争议。

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.

前马德里竞技体育总监安德烈亚·贝尔塔于三月被确认为阿森纳新任体育总监，接替了在去年十一月突然辞职加入埃万盖洛斯·马里纳基斯的多俱乐部集团的巴西人埃杜。

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.

与此同时，理查德·休斯于去年夏天出任利物浦体育总监，上任之初就面临艰巨任务，包括与明星三人组维吉尔·范迪克、穆罕默德·萨拉赫和特伦特·亚历山大-阿诺德进行关键合同谈判。

The lens on the sporting director has never been sharper, yet what they do is still often misunderstood.

对体育总监的关注从未如此聚焦，但他们具体做什么却常常被误解。

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.

为了更好地理解，《The Athletic》采访了多位体育总监，并与分析公司Traits Insights合作，后者收集了欧洲15个主要联赛中超过300位体育总监（或同等职位者）的数据，包括他们的体育背景和经验。

Crucially, what makes a successful one?

关键问题是，怎样才算成功的体育总监？

How a sporting director fits into a club's structure

体育总监如何融入俱乐部架构

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.

尽管备受关注，但不同俱乐部之间对于这个角色本身仍存在模糊性。“足球总监”、“体育总监”、“总经理”、“首席足球官”和“技术总监”等头衔最终都是同一职位的同义词，尽管不同俱乐部对该职位的期望确实有所不同。

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.

虽然主教练或经理的角色定义清晰，但体育总监却没有放之四海而皆准的模式。根据俱乐部或联赛的级别，围绕该职位构建的基础设施可能差异巨大。对于一些俱乐部，会有一位总监处于体系的核心；对于另一些俱乐部，职责则分散在多个角色之间。

"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.

“在德国，你可能有一位体育总监、一位‘kaderplaner’（引援主管）、一位技术总监，然后还有一位只负责体育事务的高管，”前汉堡和勒沃库森体育总监约纳斯·博尔特说。

"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."

“当你再考虑到教练时，这有时会产生问题，因为很难确定谁拥有权力或责任，以及如何清晰地划分这些角色。”

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."

足球运动，不仅仅是英超，发展如此迅速，这一事实加剧了关于体育总监究竟负责什么的不确定性。正如科莫利所说：“俱乐部的架构正在变化。”

"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.

“在德国、意大利和西班牙，这些角色的存在时间比在英格兰长得多，”他继续说道，“但我不会区分国家与国家——我认为整个行业都在变化。”

"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.

“在过去的五年里，我见证了这个角色的演变。例如，曼城在特希基（贝吉里斯坦）的领导下非常成功，然后他们引进了西蒙·蒂姆森担任表现总监（2020年），后者参与了很多领域的工作。”

"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."

“十年前，我可能会告诉你他们在互相抢工作，但实际上他们配合得非常好——一个人的工作变成了两个人来做，行业现在正朝着这个方向发展。”

Brentford is a good example of two roles dovetailing together in the Premier League.

布伦特福德是英超联赛中两个角色协同工作的一个很好的例子。

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.

足球总监菲尔·贾尔斯负责俱乐部的阵容管理、阵容规划和合同续签，而技术总监李·戴克斯则负责布伦特福德的招募部门。

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."

两人协同工作，朝着共同的目标努力，确保最优秀的人才最终出现在球场上——或者如贾尔斯所说，“我和李的工作就是处理转会中的具体事务。”

When looking through the number of sporting director (or equivalent) roles across Europe's major leagues, the contrast in structure starts to become clearer.

纵观欧洲各大联赛中体育总监（或同等职位）的数量，结构上的差异开始变得更加清晰。

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.

正如科莫利所说，体育总监的角色在意大利、德国、西班牙以及荷兰早已确立，这些联赛中每家俱乐部至少设有一个此职位。法甲联赛中体育总监的比例最低，18家俱乐部中有15家设有此职位。

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.

随着英超联赛近年来的追赶，上赛季20家俱乐部中有19家至少设有一位体育总监（或同等职位）——高于2016-17赛季的13/20。在这20家俱乐部中，有八家（40%）将架构拆分为两个角色，类似于贾尔斯和戴克斯的模式。

The pathway to being a sporting director

成为体育总监的路径

Previous experience among sporting directors can vary significantly.

体育总监们之前的经验可能有很大差异。

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.

以贾尔斯和戴克斯为例，前者拥有统计学博士学位，之后在布伦特福德大股东马修·贝纳姆拥有的Smartodds公司一路晋升为量化研究主管。

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.

与此同时，戴克斯在担任贝里俱乐部体育总监后加入布伦特福德担任引援主管——他拥有教练背景，此前曾在卡莱尔联队担任助理教练。

Analysis by Traits outlined four 'archetypes' that best describe the most common pathways sporting directors follow prior to landing the role. They are:

Traits公司的分析勾勒出四种“原型”，最能描述体育总监在担任此职前最常见的路径。它们是：

- The Manager, who is responsible for the club's overarching strategy across departments, such as first-team staff, recruitment, loans, academy, medical, and sports science.

- 管理者型：负责俱乐部跨部门的整体战略，例如一线队工作人员、引援、外租、青训学院、医疗和运动科学。

- The Recruiter, who leads scouting and transfer strategy, identifying players that fit within the club's game model. This often includes individuals with a data and analytics background.

- 引援专家型：主导球探和转会策略，识别符合俱乐部比赛模式的球员。这通常包括具有数据和分析背景的人士。

- The (ex-)Player, who transfers their industry knowledge and experience on the pitch to matters off the pitch. In the Premier League, Richard Hughes (Liverpool), Mark Noble (West Ham United), and (the now departed) Dougie Freedman (Crystal Palace) are examples of sporting directors who were players.

- （前）球员型：将在球场上的行业知识和经验转移到场外事务。在英超联赛中，理查德·休斯（利物浦）、马克·诺布尔（西汉姆联）以及（现已离任的）道吉·弗里德曼（水晶宫）都是球员出身的体育总监例子。

- The Executive, who leads on the club's football business, for example, co-ordinating player deals, contract negotiations, and staff turnover.

- 高管型：主导俱乐部的足球业务，例如协调球员交易、合同谈判和员工流动。

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.

关键在于，这些原型并非互斥。与其将特定的体育总监归入特定的类别，不如将这些多样的路径视为一个维恩图，各自背景所获得的技能存在大量交叉。

"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."

“我会补充另一条路径，即青训学院路径，”科莫利说。“例如，丹·阿什沃斯就来自青训学院背景。萨索洛本赛季赢得了升回意甲的资格，他们的体育总监弗朗切斯科·帕尔米耶里在获得这个职位之前，曾担任俱乐部青训学院经理九年。顺便说一句，他自己也曾是一名球员。”

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.

这是业界其他人也认同的观点，俱乐部的青训学院被视为培养一线队管理角色的理想摇篮。

"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.

“我认为担任青训学院经理可以是为（成为体育总监）做准备的一个有益步骤，”南安普顿体育总监、曾任多俱乐部777伙伴集团、热那亚和维特斯阿纳姆体育总监的约翰内斯·斯波尔斯说。

"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."

“你基本上在做同样的决策，只是财务影响较小。有时，青训学院总监管理的员工比我还要多，但职位越高，决策的影响力自然就越大。”

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.

被任命的体育总监通常是在足球俱乐部内部其他岗位有过经验后才担任此职的。例如，诺维奇城体育总监本·纳珀在转会到这支英冠球队之前，是阿森纳的外租和发展经理。

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.

然而，Traits的分析显示，有17%的人来自非技术性职位或完全在足球圈外的职位。一个显著的例子是托特纳姆热刺最近离任的首席足球官斯科特·穆恩，他曾在国家橄榄球联盟和澳式橄榄球联盟的商业运营部门任职，后来担任墨尔本城和城市足球集团的CEO。

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.

他在热刺担任首席足球官的角色更侧重于足球战略，该职位是在对俱乐部足球活动进行外部审查后设立的。

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.

履行该职位所需的核心管理技能和商业头脑往往与足球行业本身是分开的。在讨论董事会成员时，常常会循环出现对“懂球的人”和“知道如何成功经营企业的人”之间的批评，但证据表明，拥有足球背景并非进入该行业工作的先决条件。

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.

再举一个例子，阿斯顿维拉的足球运营总监达米安·维达加尼，职业生涯早期曾是一名记者，后来担任瓦伦西亚的首席媒体官，之后成为前西班牙国脚大卫·比利亚创立的媒体机构DV7的首席执行官。

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.

维达加尼与现任维拉足球运营主席、著名体育总监蒙奇并肩工作，被视为乌奈·埃梅里最信任的同事之一，俱乐部旨在重新跻身欧洲精英行列。

"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."

“我的角色让蒙奇能够专注于足球的竞技和球探方面，创建并发展强大的球探网络，”维达加尼在2023年表示。“我们就像蝙蝠侠和罗宾一样工作，因为维拉的架构需要非常快速地发展。”

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.

在目前担任南安普顿体育总监的角色中，斯波尔斯强调，成为优秀体育总监的很大一部分在于任命合适的人员和发展俱乐部的架构。

"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.

“我认为，你仅仅作为组织的一个优秀领导者变得越来越重要，”斯波尔斯说。“这是最重要的事情。俱乐部如此多样，它们如何看待自己的身份也各不相同，但多样性总是最好的——拥有来自各种背景的人很重要。”

"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."

“例如，数据显然在这个领域变得越来越重要——尤其是在美资崛起的情况下。当我来到南安普顿时，我做的第一件事就是聘请我的助理（埃利奥特·斯特普利），他曾是777的数据与分析主管，第二件事就是改变整个引援架构，确保数据与分析团队向我汇报。”

Judging a sporting director's success

评判体育总监的成功

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.

就像这个角色本身一样，衡量成功与否取决于俱乐部的具体情况。奖杯可能是成功的终极物质体现，但球场外的胜利可能与球场上的胜利同样重要。

"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."

“这是一项技术性很强的工作，所以我需要革新每个部门，确保我们拥有一个沟通架构和领导架构，每个部门都各负其责，”斯波尔斯说。“我们在这些方面做得越好，就越能增加球场成功的机会。”

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.

对于在2019年至2024年担任汉堡体育总监的博尔特来说，俱乐部的财务状况影响了他任期的大部分工作。2021-22财政年度是俱乐部12年来首次实现年度盈利。

"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."

“我的工作是让俱乐部更稳定，重塑身份认同，培养年轻球员并帮助教练们完成他们的工作，”博尔特说。“我现在不在那里了，但团队还是那个团队，这个项目共同酝酿了四年——我们现在可以看到他们努力的成果了。”

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.

如今，在阔别顶级联赛六个赛季后，俱乐部本赛季确保重返德甲，其架构处于远为稳固的位置。去年俱乐部连续第三年实现财务盈利，其人民公园球场的债务提前两年偿清。

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.

虽然博尔特并非掌管财政大权的人，但汉堡的财务状况意味着他必须巧妙地确保俱乐部在买卖球员时量入为出。

"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.

“要取得成功，你必须领先一步。有时，你需要让年轻球员去另一家俱乐部，给他们（在别处）发展的空间——但在足球界，没有人认为这是成功，因为你常常与赢得多少冠军联系在一起，”他说。

"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."

“对于体育总监或高管来说，我们负责俱乐部的战略和愿景。我理解你需要成绩，但汉堡比以往任何时候都更稳定，债务比以往任何时候都少。如果我们当时立即升级（回到德甲），那很可能是一场灾难，因为俱乐部不稳定，但现在的基础比前几年强得多。这对我来说就是成功。”

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.

稳定应该是这个角色的同义词。这听起来可能显而易见，但体育总监需要长期在位才能实现这种稳定，而这在英超一些球队中并不总是如此。

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.

阿什沃斯在短暂担任曼联体育总监之前离开了纽卡斯尔联，而他的继任者保罗·米切尔也在上任不到一年后于上月宣布离开纽卡斯尔——让俱乐部面临在短期内任命第三位体育总监的任务。

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.

利物浦任命休斯在去年夏天为俱乐部带来了稳定，此前经历了动荡的18个月：前任体育总监朱利安·沃德（他仅在一年前接替迈克尔·爱德华兹）离任后，俱乐部短期聘用了约尔格·施马特克。如果有一位长期的体育总监在位，涉及范迪克、萨拉赫和亚历山大-阿诺德的公开合同风波可能会以不同的方式处理。

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.

一个共同点是，球场上没有任何事情是保证的，但优秀的体育总监会找到方法控制可控因素，为俱乐部带来长期进步，无论短期起伏如何。

"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."

“我所能做的就是努力增加成功的机会，”斯波尔斯说。“作为体育总监，我们能做的远不止签下球员或教练。我们可以建设文化。我们可以确保每个部门都处于最佳水平并努力迈向更高层次。”

"Getting three points on a Saturday is just the result of all the work that sits behind it."

“周六拿到三分只是背后所有工作的结果。”