After FC Cincinnati underwent a nearly two-months-long search for a new general manager, the process on Monday officially concluded with ex-player and front-office veteran Chris Albright finalized as the club's next GM.
Albright, 42, of Philadelphia, arrives at FC Cincinnati following his time serving on the soccer side of the Philadelphia Union organization for nearly eight years, and most recently as technical director. In his new post, Albright will be tasked with overseeing an overhaul on the technical side of FC Cincinnati, and should quickly jump into a search for the club's next head coach.
“Our search for our next general manager was extensive,” FC Cincinnati President Jeff Berding said in a news release. “Our new GM was going to be someone who knew what was required to win in Major League Soccer, experience that was non-negotiable. Delivering on that requirement, we are delighted to have found the best person for the job.”
Per the team's news release, Albright will report to Berding and "oversee all soccer-related areas including roster management, salary cap budgeting and administration, player scouting and acquisition, oversight of the coaching staff, sports performance staff and medical staff, youth development and academy programs, and more."
“It’s an honor to be the general manager of FC Cincinnati,” Albright said in the release. “This is a club with incredible supporters, top-of-the-league facilities and resources, and a hunger for success. I would like to thank Carl (H. Lindner III), Meg Whitman and the ownership, as well as Jeff and everyone who has trusted me to lead this club to achieve the goals we have set. I am committed to bringing all of my knowledge and experience to the table to make FC Cincinnati a championship club. I look forward to meeting the team, the staff and all of the fans, and I can’t wait to get started.”
Albright will be introduced locally with a Wednesday news conference at TQL Stadium scheduled for 12:30 p.m.
While Albright was with the Union in the front office, the club underwent a kind of soccer renaissance, becoming an annual fixture in the MLS Cup playoff picture and in 2020 winning the Supporters Shield, which is awarded to the league's regular season champion and was the club's first major trophy.
Philadelphia's youth ranks also swelled with talent, and several key players on the 2020 team were sold to European clubs for millions of dollars.
The hope at FC Cincinnati is that Albright will be able to fashion a similar kind of first-team turnaround after FCC finished last in MLS in 2019 and 2020, and is again at risk of a last place finish in 2021.
FC Cincinnati (4-14-8, 20 points) currently sits last in the MLS standings with seven matches to play.
Albright, a winner of multiple MLS Cup titles, will offer the perspective of both a successful player and front-office leader. He'll need to employ all those skills as the club is currently being led on the field by an interim coaching staff after now-former head coach Jaap Stam was fired on Sept. 27.
FC Cincinnati's general manager position was vacated when Gerard Nijkamp was fired Aug. 6, just following the close of the secondary transfer window in MLS.
More:FC Cincinnati President Jeff Berding: MLS experience a priority in search for new GM
More:Jaap Stam out as FC Cincinnati head coach. Tyrone Marshall named interim head coach.
Following Nijkamp's departure, team President Jeff Berding told The Enquirer in an exclusive interview that MLS experience would be prioritized in the search for a GM.
"We have a lot better understanding of the league now than we did two years ago," Berding said in an Aug. 7 Enquirer interview. "Been in the league now. Again, I’d offer that if we’d been given the same amount of time that other franchises were given, we’d probably have understood the league a lot better before we made some key hires, but we understand now. We understand the value of experience. We understand that there’s data available to evaluate people. Cost per win, transfer record, tenure and how tenure corresponds to winning, size of payroll, size of staff, experience in the staff – all things we didn’t have when we made the turn as a record-setting USL team into a quick transition to MLS team."
Some of the points Berding touched on – cost per win, transfer market success – were just a few of the notable areas of strength for the Union while Albright was there working alongside Sporting Director Ernst Tanner, head coach Jim Curtin and Assistant Technical Director Kyle McCarthy, among others.
Albright enjoyed a decorated playing career, including inclusion in the U.S. men's national team's final roster for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.
In addition to his MLS Cups, Albright was a three-time MLS All-Star and also won the U.S. Open Cup and the now-defunct North American SuperLiga, which was a predecessor to multiple MLS-versus-Liga MX competitions in existence today.
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