Johannes Spors will become Southampton’s new technical director and support Sport Republic on football matters, subject to being granted a work permit.
The 42-year-old will join the south coast club and work for Sport Republic, the company who own the majority of Southampton, where he will assist on issues such as player pathways and development.
The German previously was global sporting director of 777 Group, whose stable of clubs included Italy’s Genoa, Red Star in Paris, Standard Liege of Belgium, Vasco da Gama in Brazil and Germany’s Hertha Berlin. They also unsuccessfully tried to buy Everton.
Spors held a strong reputation as the architect at the centre of the group’s football operations.
Previously, Spors worked as an analyst with Ralf Rangnick, now coach of Austria’s national team and the former Manchester United interim head coach, at Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig.
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He became technical director at Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem in 2020 before moving to Genoa, initially as their general manager, in December 2021.
After just seven months with Genoa, 777 promoted Spors to global sporting director, with every individual sporting director within the group reporting to him. Spors oversaw an overhaul in footballing operations across 777 and he was a proponent of a combination of the eye test, in-stadium scouting, video analysis and data when it comes to signing players.
The arrival of Spors comes following Southampton chairman Henrik Kraft stepping down, with the club’s majority owner Dragan Solak taking up the role. Kraft will remain a shareholder and on the board of Sport Republic.
Southampton are bottom of the Premier League table, 10 points from safety. They are next in action against away at Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
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(Simone Arveda/Getty Images)
