McCarron appointed Sporting Director in new Leicester leadership

Rudkin, who has been Director of Football since December 2014, becomes Chief Football Officer and will provide “executive leadership of all football matters, ensuring long-term sporting alignment, strategic squad development and the high-performance environment required to deliver sustained competitive success.”

He has served Leicester at all levels: as a schoolboy player, coach, Caretaker Manager, Academy Manager, Director of Football and now Chief Football Officer.

McCarron comes in from City Football Group and will start as Sporting Director at the end of March, reporting into Rudkin. Leicester said he would “support and help shape the club’s player recruitment and identification strategy.”

He will work closely with Martyn Glover, the Head of Senior Player Recruitment and lead first team performance departments including Data, Analysis and Sport Science, as well as overseing the Professional Development Phase of the Academy pathway.

McCarron worked in performance roles at Gloucester Rugby and Sunderland before becoming Elite Performance Manager at the Premier League. In 2018 he was appointed Head of Academy Sport Science and Medicine at Manchester City and has remained part of City Football Group ever since.

In 2021 he became Sporting Director at Lommel in Belgium and four years later was appointed Director of Player Development at CFG, overseeing emerging talent pathways across their group of clubs.

Rudkin said: “Restoring Leicester City to the level we all believe it should represent is a club-wide priority. We are clear about the standards required and the work that lies ahead to reach them.

“Re-establishing ourselves as a sustainable and consistently competitive Premier League club will not be achieved overnight. It requires a long-term vision built on careful planning, discipline and consistency, while retaining the agility to respond to the immediate demands of an intensely competitive environment.

“We approach that challenge with clarity, unity and determination, and we are fully committed to building a club that our supporters can be proud of, both now and in the years ahead.”

More and more clubs are moving away from the model of having one Sporting Director overseeing football operations. Some, like Everton and Wolves, have gone for leadership teams; others, like Brighton, for a Sporting Director and Technical Director; others, like Liverpool, for a Sporting Director and Assistant Sporting Director.

This is another variation.

Elsewhere, Kevin Davies has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, leading the club’s business functions, and Russell Jones as Commercial Director, with responsibility for Partnerships, Retail and Venue Commercial Development.