New York City FC has found its replacement for David Lee.
Todd Dunivant will be named the club’s next chief soccer officer, moving from USL Championship side Sacramento Republic to the Big Apple MLS club, The Athletic reported late Monday night.
Dunivant, 44, has held the position of general manager for the second division club since 2018 and added president of the Sacramento Republic to his résumé in 2020.
Dunivant, who had a lengthy career as a player in MLS, takes over an NYCFC squad that is coming off an impressive first year under head coach Pascal Jansen and one that just ended on Saturday in a 5-1 loss to Inter Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The new man in charge of the sporting side still has some decisions to make, which include trying to work on a new deal for homegrown star Justin Haak and finding help to fill the void left by the injury to 2025 leading scorer Alonso Martínez.
New York City FC had been searching for a replacement for Lee after he left the club in October to take over as Sporting Kansas City’s chief soccer officer.
Chatter around who would take over for Lee had been minimal as the club conducted its search, with NYCFC CEO Brad Sims telling The Post in November that they had whittled it down to a list of finalists.
“I would expect whoever we hire to come in to want to dig in and look at things differently,” Sims said during the conversation. “And that’s part of the benefit of bringing someone new also is fresh set of eyes, new kind of view on things and having new ideas and viewpoints.”
Dunivant moved into the front office side of soccer following a lengthy playing career in MLS, which spanned more than 300 matches with clubs such as the San Jose Earthquakes, LA Galaxy, Red Bulls and Toronto FC, and included winning five MLS Cups.
He was also part of two Supporters’ Shield-winning squads and a team that won the U.S. Open Cup, while also being named to the MLS Best XI in 2011.
As an executive, Sacramento Republic has made the USL Championship playoffs in all but one of the seasons that Dunivant has been at the helm for and the club reached the U.S. Open Cup final in 2022.
The news of Dunivant’s hiring came just hours after NYCFC had announced options for Nico Cavallo, Tayvon Gray, Thiago Martins, Max Murray, Kevin O’Toole, Tomás Romero and Strahinja Tanasijević had all been exercised for 2026.
NYCFC also announced that Andrés Perea’s option had been declined; however, talks were ongoing about his future.
The club also noted that it still remained in discussions with Haak and 38-year-old vet Maxi Moralez over their futures.
Credit: Source link
