The Union’s new sporting director will be Ernst Tanner, who has spent the last five years as the director of Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg’s academy.
He will be in Philadelphia this week to be introduced. According to sources, he likely won’t officially start with the Union until mid-to-late September because of visa and immigration paperwork.
Tanner, 51, has worked for Red Bull Salzburg as its academy director since 2012. The club has won Austria’s league title in six of the last seven years, including the last five straight, and four straight Austrian cups. They haven’t reached the UEFA Champions League group stage during that span, falling in various qualifying rounds, but they did reach the second-tier Europa League semifinals this past season.