Soccer

Matt Crocker taking over as U.S. Soccer sporting director

Updated Apr. 23, 2023 8:43 p.m. ET

After a three-month search, the United States Soccer Federation has landed its new sporting director.

Southampton director of football operations Matt Crocker will replace Earnie Stewart, as the USSF’s new soccer czar, according to a report Sunday by The Athletic. A U.S. Soccer spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Stewart, who in 2019 became the federation’s first sporting director, left the USSF in February to take a similar role with Dutch club PSV Eindhoven.

Crocker, 48, will oversee all 27 U.S. national teams in the role. He’ll spearhead the search for new coach for the men’s senior squad, which has been without a permanent boss since 2022 World Cup manager Gregg Berhalter’s contract expired in December.

Crocker spent the last three seasons with Southampton, which currently sits last in the Prem and will almost certainly be relegated to the second-tier English Championship by season’s end. The Saints have played in the Premier League since 2012.

The Wales native oversees the Saints’ men’s, women’s and youth teams, but announced late last year that he would leave Southampton at the end of the current campaign. Still, Crocker "was involved in the plan" to bring American manager Jesse Marsch to Southampton earlier this year, according to The Athletic.

Marsch, who most recently helmed fellow Premier League struggler Leeds United, ultimately turned the club down. He was already perhaps the leading candidate to take over the USMNT before Crocker’s appointment. It now seems even more likely that Marsch ends up in the U.S. job, which is being filled on interim basis by former Berhalter assistant Anthony Hudson.

Before rejoining Southampton, where he had been an academy coach from 2006-13, Crocker worked for England’s Football Association. He oversaw the country’s youth national teams from the under-15 to under-20 levels. England’s U-17 boys won the 2017 U17 FIFA World Cup during Crocker’s time with the FA. He left in 2020 to return to Southampton.

Several high-profile potential candidates declined to be interviewed for U.S. Soccer’s vacant sporting director role, including well-regarded MLS executives Mike Jacobs (Nashville SC), Ernst Tanner (Philadelphia Union), and onetime USMNT World Cup captain Peter Vermes (Sporting Kansas City). Atlanta United technical director Carlos Bocanegra, who captained the U.S. at the 2010 World Cup, wasn’t approached, according to multiple sources.

Two former U.S. World Cup players, Oguchi Onyewu and Tab Ramos, privately expressed interest in the job, multiple sources told FOX Sports. But the federation went with Crocker in the end, in part because of his history overseeing women’s teams with both England and Southampton. The Saints senior women’s side earned promotion in each of the last two seasons.

Experience within the women’s game was an important qualification for U.S. Soccer, per multiple sources. When announcing Stewart’s departure, USSF president (and USWNT alum) Cindy Parlow Cone said that the organization wanted its top soccer official in place before the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup kicks off on July 20. By hiring Crocker the federation has done that — with almost three months to spare.

Doug McIntyre is a soccer writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and he has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at multiple FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.

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