Atlanta United president Darren Eales, in charge of the team since 2014, will depart the club on August 8 to take the role of Chief Executive Officer at Newcastle United.
Eales oversaw the day-to-day operations of Atlanta United for nearly eight years, playing an instrumental role in the club’s development and establishment as one of the most well-attended clubs in the world.
Per Brett Jewkes, executive vice president and chief communications officer of the Blank Family of Businesses, Arthur M. Blank Sports & Entertainment CEO Steve Cannon will become the interim senior executive of Atlanta United and lead the search process for the next head of the Atlanta United front office.
Really proud of @DEalesATLUTD and grateful for time I got to work w/ him. He'll be great because he is great.
— Brett Jewkes (@BJewkes) July 15, 2022
AMBSE CEO Steve Cannon will be interim sr. exec. of AU and spearhead search process. Expectations for club on/off pitch remain sky high. #UniteAndConquer
WHAT IT MEANS FOR ATLANTA UNITED
There are some massive decisions to make now. With Carlos Bocanegra already under scrutiny and the secondary transfer window ongoing, this already felt like a critical moment in Atlanta United’s season for both the team and front office. If they choose to act quickly and promote from within, whoever is promoted will face the task of winning the trust of a fanbase already critical of the last few years of front office decisions. If they choose to go outside the organization, they'll have to assess just how similar they'll want that candidate to be to Eales in both personality, strengths and leadership style. That process may even require some tough decisions on what they want the role of the new head executive of the club to be.
WHAT’S NEXT?
There’s absolutely nothing but speculation and questions at this point.
Do you hand the job to someone in-house? Vice President of Soccer Operations Dimitrios Efstathiou joined the club in August of 2021 and has overseen the soccer operations for the club over the past year. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to see him take over almost exactly one year to the day since joining as Eales’ second in command.
Maybe Steve Cannon's search will bring in a new name not on the radar with similar attributes to Eales? Or maybe you even go for a long shot and see this as an opportunity to rework the front office entirely? It wouldn’t be insane to take a risk, take Arthur Blank’s money yacht down the Puget Sound and offer someone like Seattle’s GM and President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey total control.
There is a lot to parse through here after a genuinely shocking announcement. It’s the club’s first major front-office shakeup since Paul McDonough left Atlanta United for the second time and Efstathiou arrived. But neither announcement loomed quite as large as this.
We’ll have more updates on this story as it develops.