Post Dispatch reporting Lutz Pfannenstiel has been named sporting director: https://www.stltoday.com/sports/col...a1f7a9c4.html#tracking-source=home-the-latest I don't follow Germany much, good hire??
Found an interesting article, mentions both his philosophy for youth development and hints at the off-the-ground strategy for building the team: https://www.transfermarkt.us/pfanne...irector-from-top-four-league/view/news/368344 He had competing offers from Inter and Newcastle, so bit of a surprise to go with the unknown team in MLS - but probably shows that he's no slouch. Saw on Twitter that he also founded Global United FC, which is a nonprofit focused on climate issues. Already a plus in my book =-)
In the athletic interview he says he left Düsseldorf for family reasons, because his family was getting too much hate from fans. That might help explain why he would prefer a new club in MLS rather than a big club like Inter or Newcastle. Also, I think the opportunity to start a club from scratch could be very appealing to a lot of people.
He seems to be very focused on building a strong academy to take advantage of local kids, and Ernst Tanner was one of his mentors, so it seems like we might try to be like Philadelphia and give a lot of playing time to homegrown players. Sounds good to me. And he’ll have 3 years to work on the academy before we even start playing, so we should be able to hit the ground running.
for my liking this is an excellent signing for St. Louis this guy is incredibly connected! he knows e v e r y b o d y in soccer... e v e r y wh e r e! Lesotho, Greenland, New Guinea, you name it! most of them in person! (I'm just exaggerating a little bit ;-) honestly, I listened to him as TV-pundit for many years and his knowledge is really deep (especially about African Soccer I would say) and his remarks were always entertaining & insightful media is focusing on the he-played-prof.-soccer-on-all-continents-story but all this years as chief scout (that's what Inter wanted him for too I guess) at Hoffenheim are the real deal!... H'heim isn't just a customary european soccer club doing 'some' scouting like the others... that's the club Rangnick put on track before he did the same with Leipzig... and some of this was because they got the 'real' talents very early at D'dorf Pfannenstiel sacked Funkel (a kind of legendary elder coach, who deservedly was loved by most of the supporters because of his merits for the club) because he came to the conclusion the team AT THIS POINT (league position 18) needed a new impulse to avoid relegation... that's where the hate came from and he pulled the plug when his family got threatened by some numb nuts (still not the only reason he told)... D'dorf (a relegation candidate right from the start) went downhill anyway... post-COVID-19 Pfannenstiel warned that it would be fatal for soccer to lose the connection with the supporters and to set no limits to total commercialization here's an old piece from Pfannenstiel about the guy who is coaching a team at the CL semifinal today: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/meet-julian-nagelsmann--hoffenheim-7485088
Some more front office hires..... https://www.stltoday.com/sports/soc...cle_8dd9b559-20ab-5c0b-89d2-73301e062174.html
https://soccerstl.net/2021/07/13/john-hackworth-joins-st-louis-city-sc/ John Hackworth hired to do ...something He’ll join MLS expansion franchise St. Louis City SC with a technical role that will have direct involvement with their first team and the academy, multiple sources tell The Athletic. The role will see him working with sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel as the club builds out its sporting operations.
Several academy coaches named in this piece from today, None of them are Hackworth, though. https://www.stltoday.com/sports/soc...cle_939469ee-1d8a-5b72-8979-66fa6d462d89.html
Anyone know anything about him? I realize he's South African and coming from Red Bulls and that he was a defender. But anything about his style? Attacking, Defensive, possession, etc.
Sounds like he likes the high press: The pressing is exactly Lutz Pfannenstiel’s style. Carnell got his first coaching license under Lutz too. The CITY Academy teams this past fall were all high press attacking. Bradley will fit right into this system Lutz has been building— St. Louis Chatter (@RealSTLChatter) January 5, 2022
The thing with St. Louis is that we don’t demand a winner. The Blues and Rams prove that. We demand to be entertained. I truly believe St. Louisians would prefer an end-to-end 5-4 loss than a Gallagher-like 600 pass, 4 shot 1-0 win
Every decision we make will be purposeful. We will never compromise our club philosophy and values” LP, January 27, 2022 @stlCITYsc @MLS @MLSNEXT @MLSNEXTPRO #stlCitysc
Introducing Sascha Bauer as our Director of Regional Training & Education! An internationally-renowned coaching instructor and developer of an educational curriculum, Sascha will bring a holistic soccer training approach to the STL community. https://stlcitysc.com/news/st-louis-city-sc-launches-free-regional-soccer-and-life-skills-program-for-st-lo…
Diego Gigliani is the club’s new President and General Manager. He was with City Football Group, the parent company of Manchester City. In his most recent role, Gigliani oversaw eight of City Football Group’s international football clubs. He also was on the Board of Directors of most of these clubs and worked directly with each club CEO and Sporting Director. https://www.stlcitysc.com/news/st-l...international-soccer-executive-diego-gigliani
This comment will be a little off topic, but has an obvious St. Louis connection. (Moderators: if I overstepped, tell me to put on my dunce cap and slink off quietly back to the far corner.) I'm grateful for the ownership, front office, and technical staff that we have. Just one glance at the bottom of our conference prompts this comment. In Colorado, the one who IS the problem (hint: his name rhymes with "donkey" and we darned well know him all too well) had the ones he hired who don't understand and can't fix the problems fire the coach who was NOT the problem. Fraser exited with the best PPG record of any head coach in that team's long history. Their stadium is a tomb. Their fan base is long suffering, but in permanent despair. Their season ticket holders are an endangered species. No matter how tough any particular result is for us, this comparison speaks volumes about how well CITY's maiden voyage is going. We have a strong organization, top to bottom.