Atlanta’s MLS team will be led by Darren Eales, who was announced as president on Wednesday.
Eales, 42, was director of football administration at England’s Tottenham Hotspur, a position he held since 2010.
Neither Eales’ start date nor his introductory press conference have been set. An attempt to reach him by email hasn’t been returned.
The club will begin play in 2017 and already has more than 14,000 season tickets pledged to be purchased.
The hiring ends a months-long search that started soon after Atlanta’s MLS club was introduced by owner Arthur Blank and league commissioner Don Garber in April.
“Soccer is a lifetime passion of mine, and to have the chance to come to Atlanta and build a club from the ground up is extremely exciting,” Eales said in a statement provided by the club. “I’m going to have the rare experience of getting to know the fans from the outset, and I’m eager to engage them in the process, from naming the team to creating an incredible atmosphere at our matches.”
Eales knows soccer in the states because he studied and played here.
A native of Cambridge, England, Eales played collegiately at West Virginia and then at Brown, where he was a first-team All-American as a forward and graduated with a degree in Economics.
He played professionally in the U.S. with the Hampton Roads Mariners, Hershey Wildcats and New York Centaurs.
Eales returned to England where he studied law at Cambridge. He joined the bar in 2000.
He served in a variety of roles for West Bromwich Albion soccer club before joining Tottenham.
Eales is known as an expert negotiator, having been involved in the transfer of several high-profile players, including several who came to MLS in former Spurs forwards Clint Dempsey, Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe.
For the past few years, Spurs is considered one of the contenders for a coveted top-four spot in England’s Premier League. In addition to being involved in the players sold to MLS, Eales played a role in securing the record transfer fee of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid. The money was then invested in purchasing several high-profile players.
One of Eales’ first roles in Atlanta will be to hire a technical director/coach. There will also be the handling of the naming of the club and the process of setting up an academy, and a scouting network to target potential players.
Eales is another in line of executives from overseas clubs to be hired to manage MLS teams.
Paul Barber left Tottenham in 2010 to join Vancouver as CEO. He resigned in 2012.
Jerome de Bontin became general manager of New York in 2012 after serving as director of Monaco in his native France. Like Eales, de Bontin went to colleges in the U.S. He resigned from the Red Bulls earlier this year.
Phil Rawlins is president of Orlando City SC. His background includes 14 years as director of hometown club Stoke City in England’s Premier League.
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