I recently had a great conversation with a friend of mine who works in the recruitment department of an English Premier League club. He’s also been mentoring me academically on a sports research project focused on soccer in the United States (more on that soon!). Through our work together, one thing that’s stood out to him is how uniquely American some of the roles within MLS sporting leadership structures are, positions you simply don’t find elsewhere in world football. Today, I want to highlight two of those roles. They’re essential pieces of the sporting department machine and, together with the Sporting Director, help shape how clubs operate on and off the field. Let’s get into it.

One of the things that makes American sports uniquely American is the idea of the salary cap. In most salary-capped leagues across the U.S., you’ll find someone with a title like Director of Player Personnel. Their main job is to manage the cap, making sure every contract fits within the club’s available space. While this role isn’t quite as common in MLS yet, it’s a major part of organizations in the NBA, NFL, and NHL. A rule that limits how much money a team can spend on player salaries. It can apply per player, per team, or both. But in the MLS, managing the cap is only scratching the surface. There are Designated Player rules to navigate, GAM and TAM to track, international and homegrown slots to balance, contracts to stay compliant with, and roster construction models to follow across the season. Sounds like a lot, right? That’s because it is. And that’s why clubs have people who live and breathe this stuff. They might not go by “Director of Player Personnel,” but they’re in the building, working quietly behind the scenes to keep everything in line. As MLS and soccer in America continue to grow, I think we’ll start seeing more of these roles formally added to club leadership structures. So the next time you see a weird-looking multi-club roster transaction come across your feed and think, What on earth was that? Just remember, it was probably a calculated move made by the club’s sporting leadership, setting things up for a bigger play down the road.

Being a Sporting Director is a lot of work. There are constant decisions, both sporting and business related that can make or break a season. That’s where Soccer Operations and Strategy staff come in. These are the people who make sure the club’s sporting vision actually comes to life. They oversee things like roster management, player acquisition, league compliance, analytics, and team administration. They work closely with the Sporting Director and head coach to make sure short-term actions line up with long-term goals. If I had to describe them, I’d say they’re part chief of staff, part strategist, people who live in the details but always keep the bigger picture in mind. Their entire job is to push the sporting department forward.

Every MLS club is like a chain of dominoes waiting to fall. The Sporting Director decides the pattern, (building the roster, identifying targets, managing relationships). The Director of Player Personnel sets the dominoes up, making sure every piece fits within the rules. Then the Soccer Operations and Strategy folks make sure the dominoes fall exactly the way they’re supposed to.

And once it’s done, the cycle starts all over again.

Running a professional soccer organization takes a whole team of people behind the curtain. So the next time you see your club’s GM or Sporting Director in a press conference, remember the group behind them, the ones keeping the whole operation steady.

Thanks for reading, I hope you’ve enjoyed!