Manchester United have appointed Mike Sansoni, a former Mercedes Formula One engineer, as their new director of data. Sansoni, who has never worked in football before, spent 11 years at Mercedes contributing to eight world championship-winning seasons. He replaces Dominic Jordan, who left the club last year.
Sansoni will report to chief executive Omar Berrada and is known to United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe through Ineos' minority stake in Mercedes. The club aims to use Sansoni's expertise in data and artificial intelligence to transform performance across football and the wider organisation.
United have described Sansoni's role as establishing the club as a data-led organisation, embedding predictive and AI-driven decision-making. The appointment follows a round of redundancies affecting 450 staff, with further hires planned for Sansoni's team.
In a separate move, United have appointed Kirstin Furber as people director. Furber, formerly a director at Channel 4, has also worked for BBC Worldwide and 20th Century Fox, and served on the boards of British Wheelchair Basketball and the London Football Association.
