VANCOUVER, BC — After a 100-day global search, the Vancouver Whitecaps have finally introduced 46-year-old Axel Schuster as their new sporting director Friday.
Schuster is from Germany and previously worked in the Bundesliga under veteran soccer executive Christian Heidel, first as a team manager at 1.FSV Mainz 05 from 1992-2016 and then as a sporting director at FC Schalke 04 from 2016-19.
The Whitecaps hired a sporting consulting company last summer to identify the right person for the job.
“We had 42 candidates and we brought the final three candidates to Vancouver and then made a decision,” Whitecaps co-owner Jeff Mallett said about the global search.