5 Things to know about Todd Dunivant

New York City FC has a new Sporting Director, with Todd Dunivant of Sacramento Republic FC in the USL Championship officially set to become the third person to hold the club's top soccer executive role.

It's the first time he'll work as a front-office executive in Major League Soccer, but Dunivant is no stranger to MLS, playing 13 seasons in the league for four different teams before hanging up the boots and moving into the front office.

Dunivant is not an internal hire plucked from the far reaches of City Football Group, or promoted from within the existing sporting setup created by the recently departed David Lee. That makes him something of an outsider and something of an unknown to followers of New York City FC — that, plus the fact that the majority of his playing and post-playing career has been spent in the far-off state of California.

It's not yet possible to know how Dunivant will approach the job of NYCFC Sporting Director as he steps into running a team with 29 players under contract heading into 2026, and with a successful, respected Head Coach in Pascal Jansen already in place.

Until we see Dunivant in action, making roster moves that shape the present and future of NYCFC, all we can do is look back at his career as a player and executive to try to figure out what might be in store for New York City as the club adjusts to its new top soccer boss.

After doing some reading, watching, and listening, here are the big things that stood out about Dunivant and his journey to becoming NYCFC's sporting director.

1. From player to architect: 'I've never taken shortcuts'

The success Dunivant enjoyed during his 13-season playing career in MLS is striking and can't be brushed aside, even as he's in New York to take on a front office job.

Winning five MLS Cups, two Supporters' Shields, and a US Open Cup means trophies were an expectation during his playing days. There's got to be something that translates from being a part of so many successful MLS teams to then being a successful soccer executive.

Dunivant put that theory to the test right away when his career as a player reached its conclusion. The left-back's final MLS season was in 2015, and by 2016, he was working on a from-the-ground-up build of a lower-league team, the San Francisco Deltas of the North American Soccer League (NASL), taking over as general manager.

He was one of the first five employees hired by the Deltas, going to work with a friend from his college days at Stanford University. As Dunivant told Grant Wahl in a must-read July 2022 interview, he joined the Deltas with just one year to build the NASL club up from scratch. Dunivant says he "had the small task of putting together the soccer operation, creating a merchandise line from scratch, and then also being in charge of sponsorships."

His decisions worked out and led to a championship in the one and only season the Deltas existed. Dunivant called the coach he worked with that year, Marc Dos Santos, "the best hire we made" in that same Grant Wahl interview. Dos Santos just might join Dunivant in starting a new high-profile MLS job in 2026: The head coach is reportedly the frontrunner to take over for Steve Cherundolo at LAFC.

Dunivant chose the "learn by doing" approach to becoming a front-office executive in American soccer, and showed a proclivity for doing it from his first gig.

He didn't start right at the MLS level at which he spent over a decade playing, either. He instead worked up the proverbial American soccer ladder, starting in NASL in 2016 and 2017, then spending 2018-2025 at the highest level of the USL setup. As Dunivant put it when answering a Grant Wahl question about future aspirations to run an MLS team, "I've never taken shortcuts and always try to earn everything I get."

The Interview: Todd Dunivant

The Sacramento Republic president/GM on meeting KC in the US Open Cup semifinals and trying to become the first non-MLS team to win the Open Cup since 1999

Fútbol with Grant WahlGrant Wahl

2. Sacramento's on-field identity

Since Dunivant arrived in 2018, Sacramento's on-field foundation has been built on the defensive side. Sacramento has consistently been one of the stingiest defensive teams in the USL Championship. Across the last three seasons dating back to 2023, Sac Republic ranked in the top-three in USLC for fewest goals allowed, conceding only 27 times during the 2025 season, the second-fewest in the league.

Stretching back to when Dunivant first arrived in 2018, Sacramento finished outside the Top 10 ranking for teams with the fewest goals allowed just once, in 2021, the one season the club did not qualify for USL Championship's postseason.