Orta named Leeds United's Director of Football
Victor Orta was chief scout at Middlesbrough for 18 months
Written by Simon Austin — May 30, 2017
LEEDS UNITED have announced Spaniard Victor Orta as their new Director of Football.
The appointment marks a new structure at the club following Andrea Radrizzani's takeover last week.
Orta will oversee the football side of the club, with new Managing Director Angus Kinnear in charge of the business. Previous owner Massimo Cellino had effectively fulfilled the role of Director of Football during his tenure - with mixed results, most people would admit.
Orta, who left Middlesbrough last week after 18 months at the Riverside, said: “I am excited by the opportunity to become Director of Football at a great club like Leeds United.
“Once I had met with Andrea Radrizzani and spoken to him about his plans to take the club forward, I knew that this was the right move for me and I am confident that we can achieve great things in the coming years.”
Radrizzani added: “I am delighted to welcome Victor to Elland Road. I have been impressed by his knowledge of the game, his extensive scouting network and his desire to help us achieve our objective of getting Leeds United back to the Premier League."
Orta worked as a football journalist and agent before joining Sevilla as technical secretary in 2006. For seven years there he worked under Monchi, who is widely regarded as the best Sporting Director in Europe and is now at Roma.
In June 2013, Orta moved to Zenit St Petersburg as head of recruitment, before joining La Liga side Elche as technical director for a short period.
He joined Middlesbrough in December 2015 as chief scout. In their statement, Leeds United said Orta had been “instrumental” in Boro's automatic promotion to the Premier League in 2015/16 but, in truth, he was only there for six months before that happened.
Earlier this month Boro owner Steve Gibson singled out recruitment as the key reason why his club had been relegated from the Premier League - and that fell under Orta’s remit.
”Many things have gone wrong,” Gibson said. “The recruitment policy was not what we thought. We want to smash the league next season, we want to go up as champions. We need to bring in the type of players to do what I said.
"We have a core of players who we feel are more than capable. We need to add to them, more flair, more pace."
Craig Honeyman, the director of HSH Sports, said: "He (Orta) is a great appointment for Leeds. I've known him since his Seville days. Thoughtful, intelligent, respected and very well connected."
