New York City FC needs a new Sporting Director, as the club just announced the sudden departure of David Lee, a member of NYCFC's front office since 2014.
Lee is staying in Major League Soccer and moving to Sporting Kansas City in the Western Conference, where he'll be President of Soccer Operations & General Manager.
Kansas City jettisoned their longtime coach and general manager, Peter Vermes, early this season and will now hand Lee the keys to the kingdom as they look to rebuild and return to contention.
There's no immediate successor in place for Lee at New York City. In the official announcement of his departure, the club says, "Lee’s last day at New York City FC will be Monday, October 6. New York City FC has begun their search for a new Sporting Director and will update fans as soon as the right candidate has been identified. "
Since 2019, Lee has been at the top of New York City's sporting operation, taking over the role first held by Claudio Reyna. Lee spent years working under Reyna, first as Director of Player Recruitment and then as Technical Director, until he stepped up into his boss's job when Reyna left to take over expansion franchise Austin FC after the 2019 season.
Lee gets credit for the work done to complete the build on NYCFC's first trophy-winning side, and for the profits he turned on players developed and brought along by New York City FC – like Santiago Rodríguez and Taty Castellanos, two profitable outgoings that also helped NYCFC win in Lee's time in charge. There's also lots of youth development breakthroughs, and some notable flop signings – Lee's tenure isn't easily wrapped up in a few sentences. That will come later.
Now his time with New York City and City Football Group is over, and it comes at what looks like a time of major change on the sporting side of things internally at CFG. Lee leaves the company not long after lots of changes at the management levels above him inside CFG, like Brian Marwood, who was CFG's managing director of global football, reducing to only a part-timer. The Athletic took an in-depth look at the "new order" inside the higher levels of City Football Group, which feels like a relevant read as yet another high-level sporting executive leaves the company.
If you want to read the full text of NYCFC's shock statement announcing Lee's exit, including quotes from Lee, the club's chairman Marty Edelman, and CEO Brad Sims, you can do so here.
