Liverpool remains on the lookout for a new sporting director to oversee a critical few months in the future of the club. Jörg Schmadtke’s tenure was only going to be a short-term one and the German has left his role following the end of the January transfer window.
It means the next sporting director will be Liverpool’s fourth in three years and the first task at hand could be deciding upon Jürgen Klopp’s successor. Xabi Alonso remains the leading candidate for that post but it appears no appointment will be made until a sporting director is in place.
They will ultimately have a say in Klopp’s replacement and the Athletic reports that Liverpool’s FSG owners has started ‘formal conversations’ with candidates about taking over from Schmadtke.
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There have unsurprisingly been links to a number of individuals, including West Ham chief Tim Steidten. The Mail reported that he had emerged as a potential option for Liverpool, having worked with Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen. He only joined West Ham last summer and the Premier League side would like him to stay.
There is likely to be more speculation over who Liverpool will bring in over the coming months and two potential candidates have now emerged. Liverpool.com takes a look at the new names in the frame.
Frederic Massara
According to the Athletic, Liverpool is considering AC Milan sporting director Frederic Massara. The 55-year-old moved to the San Siro in 2019 after spells with Roma and Inter Milan and remains highly-regarded.
Massara played a key role in Milan completing deals for the likes of Rafael Leão, Theo Hernández and Fikayo Tomori and in 2022 was named as the Sporting Director of the Year at the Globe Soccer Awards.
He could be an attainable target too and would be available to start immediately as he is on gardening leave with the Serie A giants. That decision was made by Milan’s RedBird Capital owners amid a difference in opinion with Massara and Milan legend Paolo Maldini, who had been overseeing the transfer strategy.
In an interesting twist, RedBird has a 10 per cent stake in FSG, which was believed to be worth around $671m (£533m/€621m) when the deal was announced back in 2021, according to the Guardian. It is unclear if it would have a say in FSG’s appointment.
Florent Ghisolfi
Another new name in the frame is Nice chief Florent Ghisolfi, who is just 38. Ghisolfi retired from playing in 2014 and went on to become sporting director at Lens.
He joined Nice in 2022 and has been working under INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who recently completed its investment deal at Manchester United. The Athletic reports that INEOS would like to keep him there and there has been no indication that Ratcliffe would try and take Ghisolfi to Old Trafford.
FSG is said to admire the Frenchman but accept it would be tricky to take him to Anfield. Ghisolfi has been keen to put long-term plans in place at Nice and previously outlined his transfer strategy of compiling a ‘great team, rather than a group of great players’, reports Monaco-Tribune.
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