Sunderland appoint Arsenal’s ex-Head of Performance Forsythe
Written by
Ian Westbrook
October 1, 2025
Shad Forsythe, who worked closely with Arsene Wenger at Arsenal for four years, has been appointed Head of First Team Performance at Sunderland.
Forsythe was the Gunners’ Head of High Performance for eight years, having been brought in by Wenger straight after the 2014 World Cup finals, where he had worked with champions Germany. He was their national side’s Head of Performance for 19 years.
Wenger left Arsenal in the summer of 2018 and during that close season, Forsythe was offered the chance to become Director of Performance at AC Milan. However, the Gunners persuaded him to stay on and his role was enhanced following the 2019 departure of Darren Burgess, who for two years worked with a very similar job title to Forsythe.
He eventually left Arsenal in the summer of 2022 and has spent the last three seasons as Head of Performance at Borussia Dortmund.
Forsythe worked as a Performance Manager for the US company EXOS before he moved into football full-time. While working for the firm he met Jurgen Klinsmann, who brought Forsythe into the Germany national team set-up when he became Manager in 2004.
He worked with Arsenal players Per Mertesacker, Lukas Podolski and Mesut Ozil with Germany before Wenger appointed him.
‘Developing our provision across performance and medical’
Sunderland have also appointed Luke Cooper as Senior Performance Coach. He had brief spells working for Lincoln City, Coventry City and Leicester City, before spending four years with Sheffield Wednesday – the last two of which were as First Team Strength and Conditioning Coach.
Cooper moves to the Stadium of Light from New York City, where he was Head of Sport Science from July 2020 to February 2025.
Jamie Harley, Sunderland’s Head of Performance and Medicine, said: “Following our promotion to the Premier League, it was important to continue developing our provision across performance and medical. We are delighted by the impact our new staff have made alongside the wider team, with investment in personnel also underpinned by further developments to the environment and infrastructure at the Academy Light.”
The Black Cats have also named Liam Howells as their new Lead Performance Nutrionist and Colette Miller as Soft Tissue Therapist, while they are in the process of appointing a Performance Nutritionist.
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