Austin FC Names Khaled El-Ahmad Sporting Director After Western Conference Slide

Austin FC needed a change of direction, and it found one in Minnesota. The Texas club announced Tuesday that Khaled El-Ahmad will become its new sporting director and head of soccer operations, arriving at a moment when the team is fighting for its season near the bottom of the standings.

The situation on the field leaves little room for nuance: Austin sits 14th of 15 teams in the Western Conference, well outside playoff position, under interim manager Davy Arnaud, who took charge after Nico Estevez departed in May. Jim Curtain, meanwhile, has already been confirmed as the permanent head coach starting next season. That's a lot of turnover for a club still searching for an identity.

El-Ahmad arrives with a recent track record built on results. In his last two seasons as sporting director in Minnesota, the club reached the MLS playoffs both times. Before that stint, he worked as sporting director at Barnsley, now competing in League One, English soccer's third tier. At 45, he becomes a central figure in the effort to reshape a project that has yet to find its footing.

At his introduction, El-Ahmad was direct about what drew him to the job:

The most important thing for me is coming to a place with potential; its history is short, but exciting.Khaled El-Ahmad

A Rebuild That Keeps Going

The move doesn't stand alone. Austin fired its previous sporting director, Rodolfo Borrell, the same day Estevez's exit was confirmed. Borrell had joined the club in 2023 after years as an assistant to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. The club also recently promoted president Andy Loughnane to chief executive officer, giving him oversight of both the business side and soccer operations.

Loughnane was direct about what the club was looking for in El-Ahmad's profile: experience and proven success building and managing rosters within MLS's particular framework, with its salary cap and roster rules, was exactly what the club needed at this moment.

Austin FC launched as an expansion franchise in 2021, with majority owner Anthony Precourt pushing to turn the club into one of the league's marquee brands. Results on the field haven't matched that ambition: just two playoff appearances, and with this hire, the club will have gone through four head coaches and three different sporting directors heading into next season.

One number keeps the club steady amid the turbulence: Austin has sold out 98 consecutive matches at Q2 Stadium, a venue with capacity for nearly 21,000 fans, a streak no other MLS team can match. In this season's Leagues Cup, the team advanced to the quarterfinals, and a top-three finish in that tournament would mean a direct berth into next year's Concacaf Champions Cup.

Precourt summed up the decision to bring in El-Ahmad this way:

We were very deliberate about what this team needs from its next leader. We have a burning ambition to deliver top-level results for our fans and our city.Anthony Precourt