FSG close to making CRUCIAL post-Klopp appointment

Liverpool’s owners Fenway Sports Group will soon hire Pedro Marques, the Benfica technical director, whose work at the City Football Group helped their multi-club ownership model take off. 

That’s according to David Ornstein, the Athletic reporter who last month first revealed FSG’s interest in acquiring the services of the 41-year-old Portuguese. 

Marques joined Benfica from CFG back in 2018, first working as a youth technical director, responsible for player development up to B-team level, and overseeing a transition into the first team. 

But his work further back, at CFG, might be most intriguing to Liverpool fans. 

FSG are seeking to emulate CFG’s multi-club model with their newly-appointed CEO of Football confirming those intentions last month when installed last month. 

Michael Edwards, formerly Liverpool’s sporting director, has returned to work under the FSG umbrella, and part of his role will include establishing a multi-club ownership model. 

“I believe that to remain competitive, investment and expansion of the current football portfolio is necessary,” Edwards said when he was re-appointed. 

Marques should be able to provide exactly what FSG and Edwards are seeking.  

He first moved to City to work as a first-team performance analyst under then-manager Roberto Mancini and later Manuel Pellegrini. 

Marques was then promoted in 2014 to the position of Global Lead for Football Performance, where he coordinated CFG's worldwide expansion, developing coaching methodologies and performance analysis for City as well as New York City FC, Melbourne City, Yokohama F. Marinos, Girona and Torque. 

CFG, set up in 2013, now boasts ownership stakes in 12 clubs around the world. Marques has also worked at Sporting CP, where he began his career as a coach, performance analyst and also worked in the recruitment department. 

Marques is known to key figures at Liverpool due to doing the deal which brought Darwin Nunez from Lisbon to Anfield in 2022 and he also worked alongside another former Liverpool sporting director, Julian Ward, at Man City. 

FSG preparing for post-Klopp future

Furthermore, the Portugal native would not be employed by Liverpool directly, instead, he would be working for the Boston-based ownership group, according to the Athletic. 

Last week Football Insider reports that Liverpool wanted to acquire Toulouse as part of their multi-club ownership model were refuted but there will soon be more clubs added to the FSG stable. 

The appointment would mark the latest step in Liverpool’s radical shakeup in the post-Jurgen Klopp era. 

Edwards has named the Bournemouth technical director, Richard Hughes, as the new sporting director at Anfield and he will officially start work in June. 

Plans are ongoing to announce a successor to Klopp with Xabi Alonso now out of the running.