Aston Villa hire Johan Lange as sporting director after dismissing Jesus Garcia Pitarch
Aston Villa have appointed Johan Lange as their new sporting director, after the dismissal of Jesus Garcia Pitarch.
Lange is leaving his role as FC's Copenhagen technical director to take a similar position at Villa after the club secured a second season in the Premier League.
Pitarch was sacked on Monday, 24 hours after the 1-1 draw at West Ham which secured safety, amid scrutiny over some of his signings and disagreements over the strategy for the club's future.
The sporting director position is seen as a key role and Villa have moved to appoint the vastly experienced Lange for the job ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.
Villa's owners, Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens, said in a joint statement: “We’re pleased to welcome Johan to Aston Villa as we continue building a world-class organisation.
“This past season we were able to navigate a very difficult transition into the Premier League and are happy with the effort to stay up. But we will not be satisfied until we achieve our goal of bringing sustainable success to Aston Villa at the top tier of European football.
“We’ve made some significant strides in building an organisation and culture that will sustain success. We made significant investments into our academy programme by upgrading our facilities and bringing in a talented leadership team. We have also significantly invested in our women’s team who achieved promotion to the top tier of women’s football.
“This is a great opportunity to improve our football operations. We’re excited to work directly with Johan and the team to strengthen our analytics, sports science, talent recruitment and player development programmes.
“We are incredibly optimistic about the future of Aston Villa and remain committed to further invest in the Club’s success.”
Lange has previous experience of English football after working alongside Stale Solbakken during his spell at Wolves.
Villa avoided relegation to the Championship on the final day of the season, with Bournemouth and Watford joining Norwich in the drop into the second tier.
