St. Louis City FC fires sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel amid another trying season

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ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis City FC fired sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel on Monday, two years after the MLS expansion club won the regular-season Western Conference title and amid a trying season in which it has plummeted down the standings.

St. Louis City is 14th out of 15 teams in the conference with seven matches remaining.

“These decisions are never easy and with the legacy Lutz built during his time here, he will always be part of the extended City family,” club president and general manager Diego Gigliani said. “From the very beginning, Lutz has shown real passion and commitment for this project and the foundation he established was integral to the club’s historic first season.

“As we enter the next phase of the club’s long-term plan to lift up the region and help both the team and St. Louis achieve its potential, the next five years will be extremely important, and we believe a change in sporting leadership will help in the club’s pursuit of its goals. Unfortunately, we’ve struggled to create sporting stability and haven’t been able to meet the expectations of our owners or our fans, despite increasing our investment in the squad consistently.”

Gigliani and St. Louis City technical director John Hackworth will work with the team's sporting staff on roster management and construction, including player contract negotiations, as the club searches for a permanent sporting director.

Pfannenstiel, a former German soccer goalie and sporting executive, was hired in 2020 as the club's first sporting director. He helped to not only create the club's first team but also its training center and academy programs.

“Lutz was one of our most important hires in the early days of the club and deserves so much of the credit for our early success,” St. Louis City owner and chief executive Carolyn Kindle. “But more than that, he believed in the ownership group’s vision of being about more than just soccer and embraced the St. Louis community."

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