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Worst-kept secret in soccer this week made official: Rodolfo Borrell named Austin FC sporting director

Originally posted on The Striker | By Phil West | Last updated 6/30/23

On Wednesday, news broke that Rodolfo Borrell was coming to Austin FC from the Manchester City camp to be its new sporting director.

On Friday, Austin FC acknowledged it, issuing a press release confirming that the 52-year-old Man City assistant coach — with an impressive resume building some of Europe's most storied soccer clubs in a range of roles — will come to take over the role vacated by former fellow City Football Group employee Claudio Reyna.

Sean Rubio, who has been serving in the Interim Sporting Director role since Reyna's official shift to an advisory role, has been given a new title of Senior Vice President, Player Personnel — which the club is characterizing as a promotion. In the new role — which appears to be in line with his past work with Austin FC — Rubio will "oversee roster management and compliance for all Austin FC teams," and work in concert with Borrell.

Borrell, in charge of all soccer operations — including the first team, MLS Next Pro squad Austin FC II, and the Austin FC academy — and will oversee a 45-person full-time staff, reporting directly to CEO and Majority Owner Anthony Precourt.

Highlights from the press release

A native of Barcelona, Spain, Borrell was formerly a youth coach in FC Barcelona’s famed La Masia Academy from 1995 to 2009. While at FC Barcelona, Borrell played a key role in the development of future global superstars such as Lionel Messi, Gerard Piqué, and Cesc Fàbregas.
Borrell joined Liverpool FC in 2009, serving as Academy Technical Director and Second Team Head Coach while with the English Premier League club. During his tenure with Liverpool’s Academy, Borrell oversaw the developmental platform that ultimately produced Premier League mainstays Raheem Sterling, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Conor Coady.
In 2014, Borrell joined Manchester City FC as Global Technical Director before being named City’s first team assistant coach under manager Pep Guardiola in 2016, one of the most decorated coaches of all time at the elite levels of world soccer. Borrell has since played a role in Manchester City’s unprecedented recent period of success.
“I’m very excited to join Austin FC,” said Borrell. “It’s an ambitious club in a vibrant city with fantastic fan support and great ownership. I look forward to working closely with the coaches, staff, and players to help this organization win trophies and establish itself as a consistently elite team in Major League Soccer.”
“All of us at Austin FC wish Rodolfo and his family a warm welcome to our city and to our Club,” said Precourt. “He brings an incredibly impressive track record, a wealth of experience, and passion for the beautiful game, and we fully believe he is the right person to move our ambitions forward and develop the best players, coaches, and staff for the first team, second team, and academy.”

What happens now

Borrell's going to jump right into the job. Though his official press conference unveiling him is at a date to be determined, he technically starts Saturday, four days before the summer transfer window starts. There's one immediate roster decision to make: U22 Initiative striker Moussa Djitte, whose loan to AJ Ajaccio expires today. We Are Austin TV is signal-boosting a rumor linking the Senegalese player to Grenoble, which would comport with Djitte's desire to remain on the other side of the Atlantic, and would leave Austin with just one active U22 player, Rodney Redes — as Zan Kolmanic was placed on the Season-Ending Injury List earlier this season.

Still no clear update on Moussa Djitte’s future who’s loan is up with AC Ajaccio today, however there is a rumor linking him to another French team…

Grenoble (his former club) is rumored to be after Moussa to boost their attack

Credit to: @FredericSougey ✍#austinfc #verde pic.twitter.com/poquY09WLn
— WeAreAustinTV (@WeAreAustinTV) June 30, 2023

In Wednesday's media availability, Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff spoke with a good degree of candor, hinting that the distractions around Reyna's conflict with U.S. men's national team head coach Gregg Berhalter — which The Striker broke down on Jan. 4 — led to some missed opportunities in the most recent transfer window.

"It's unsettling for something to happen in January, December, January, whenever it was finally obviously realized that Claudio was stepping away," Wolff said. It also makes it unsettling in the offseason; the offseason was unsettling. We lost some players unexpectedly because communication broke down. We didn't get players in that we should probably should have got in. And we didn't move players on that we probably could have moved on. So without a sporting director in place and the uncertainty that had provided, it put us in a spot and started the season ... it was challenging, and it's been difficult."

Wolff has also broadly hinted that he's prioritizing a center back in this window, given that short-term stopgap Aleksandar Radovanovic, who arrived in March on a short-term loan technically expiring today, has played his last match in Verde. He also hinted on Wednesday that, aside from a few "untouchables," the club is open to moving players in the upcoming window. He did note that Dani Pereira, the No. 1 SuperDraft pick who has blossomed into one of the league's best young midfielders, would only be available for suitor teams willing to pay a substantial transfer fee.

"If someone wants him, they're gonna have to come pay for him. We don't want to lose Dani. But, you know, we know he has ambitions as well. And like I said, we have ambitions to sell players also, but he's performing at a high level for us. We don't plan on losing him."

Of course, Austin's now got a head of soccer operations with direct experience with teams that any aspiring player would love to move to. Pereira's ability to move is complicated by his asylum-seeking status — but Borrell's arrival and Wolff's stated ambitions to improve the club could make this a fascinating transfer window.

Questions we still have

We presume that Reyna is now not involved with Austin FC in any capacity, even in an advisory one, with the new hire. We'll look for confirmation in the upcoming media event.

As the release noted, Borrell has nearly three decades in the pro soccer world, but has no sporting director experience and no MLS experience. I'm immediately curious about the relationship he'll forge with Rubio, active over the past year as the engineer of one of the best MLS Next Pro teams.

You'll notice the club has provided us of a photo with Borrell next to Pep Guardiola. Does that magic just rub off? (But, seriously, the change in a sporting director could preclude the change in a head coach, though Wolff was chosen four months before a sporting director when Precourt was building the team, and the release makes clear that Borrell still reports to Precourt. Though WolffOuters might be emboldened by this official announcement, it seems unlikely that Borrell would start his era by changing coaches in the middle of a season where Austin's in a playoff spot and on an upswing. But, seriously, the speculation's going to be there — even if Pep's not coming to Austin.)

This article first appeared on The Striker and was syndicated with permission.

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