Arsenal appoint Sanllehi as Head of Football Relations
Sanllehi was at Barcelona for 14 years
Written by Simon Austin — November 28, 2017
ARSENAL have appointed Barcelona’s Raul Sanllehi to the new position of Head of Football Relations.
The Spaniard, who was Director of Football at Barcelona for 14 years, will join the Gunners in February. His role will be “to lead future player negotiations and work alongside manager Arsène Wenger, chief executive Ivan Gazidis and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy.”
The club added: “He will also represent and support the club with international and domestic governing bodies.”
The appointment follows a massive overhaul of the backroom team at the club. Last week Sven Mislintat joined to head player recruitment, while Darren Burgess has joined as Head of Elite Performance, Hussein Fahmy to deal with contract negotiations and Jens Lehmann as first-team coach.
Central defender Per Mertesacker will take charge of the Academy in the summer.
Chief executive Ivan Gazidis said: “In the past three years we have supplemented our team with more top-class expertise across every aspect of our football operations.
"Raul’s appointment is another important step in developing the infrastructure we need at the club to take everything we do to the next level. Raul has extensive contacts across the football world and has been directly involved in some of the biggest transfers in Europe in recent years. We look forward to him bringing that expertise to Arsenal.”
Arsenal appointments since June:
- Darren Burgess (Head of Elite Performance)
- Sven Mislintat (Head of Recruitment)
- Hussein Fahmy (Player Contracts)
- Jens Lehmann (First-team Coach)
- Per Mertesacker (Academy Manager)
