Who is Mike Sansoni? Manchester United’s newest director has been announced, as the Red Devils make further adjustments to their senior staff.
2024 got off to an eventful start for Manchester United, as it saw Sir Jim Ratcliffe purchase a 27.7% stake in the Red Devils, which allowed him to take control of the club’s financial operations.
Since then, there have been an array of changes both on and off the pitch, with many alterations made to the senior staff at the Premier League club.
Having appointed Ruben Amorim to take care of proceedings on the pitch for United, Ratcliffe and INEOS have made plenty of adjustments to improve the club off the pitch.
One of the latest changes that has been made is two new senior appointments to key areas of the club’s leadership, which United have recently announced.
Who is Sansoni?
Mike Sansoni is the latest to join the directors at the Red Devils, having just been appointed as the director of data.
Sansoni worked most recently as a senior performance engineer for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team, where he worked for 11 years, contributing to eight world championship-winning seasons.
The new director of data will report to chief executive, Omar Berrada, and he will be responsible for ‘transforming the club’s capabilities in data and artificial intelligence, drawing on his experience in machine learning and advanced modelling in Formula One’, as stated by the club’s website.
He has been tasked with establishing United as a data-led organisation, embedding predictive and AI-driven decision-making across the football club as a whole.
United taking initiative through recruitment
United have also stated that their objectives regarding a data-led approach will be supported through further recruitment, with several data, software and platform engineering roles to be addressed.
This hire from the Reds demonstrates how they are following suit and adapting to the advancements in the modern game, particularly in the area of AI-driven approaches.
For many years, several clubs in England’s top flight have been incorporating a data-driven and AI approach into their recruitment to achieve success. Clubs such as Brighton and Brentford are major examples of this.
Only time will tell how this affects the recruitment at the club, but it seems on the surface like it could be a very smart hire to adapt to English football’s modern recruitment ideals.
Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is streamed live every Thursday at 12:30 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.