Dan Ashworth left Manchester United in December after just five months at Old Trafford, with the highly-rated executive now making his first return to football since that exit
Dan Ashworth has made his first return to football since leaving Manchester United, with the 54-year-old being named the Football Association’s first Chief Football Officer. Ashworth left United in December, just five months after joining as their sporting director.
The Red Devils had been involved in a protacted negotiation with Newcastle to be able to bring in the Englishman. But amid their dreadful season and reports of clashes with controlling co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Ashworth moved on.
He has since stayed out of the game, but is now returning to an old stomping ground. The FA announced on Wednesday that Ashworth had been appointed to the newly-created position of Chief Football Officer with the governing body.
Ashworth has been tasked with leading the FA’s high-performance strategy with strategic oversight across the England men’s and women’s teams. In his new job, Ashworth will work closely with men’s technical director John McDermott and Kay Cossington’s successor in the women’s technical directorate, while reporting into FA CEO Mark Bullingham.
One of Ashworth’s other main tasks will be to oversee the regeneration of St George’s Park. The state-of-the-art training base will undergo a significant upgrade ahead of Euro 2028, which England will co-host.
Ashworth has been challenged to ‘optimise’ the potential of the national football centre and building systems that will ‘underpin’ the FA’s performance targets. That includes creating winning England teams and developing more homegrown coaches.
It marks a return to the FA for Ashworth, with the executive having been the director of elite development and then technical director at the governing body between 2013 and 2019. His return has been hailed by FA chief Bullingham.
“Dan is a hugely influential and respected figure in the game, who has a long-standing commitment to England football,” said Bullingham. “We are very happy to welcome him back in this new role.”