Premier League club Liverpool have appointed Julian Ward as their sporting director for a second time following Richard Hughes' recent departure to Al-Hilal.
The 45-year-old returns to the club tasked with helping oversee first-team and academy operations at Anfield and Melwood after spending the past two years in a technical director role for the club's owners, the Fenway Sports Group.
Ward previously worked for Liverpool in the role during the 2022/23 campaign and played a key role in the acquisitions of players such as Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo.
He boasts vast experience in professional football having worked his way up into the sporting director role on Merseyside, having previously undertaken roles as the club's European scouting manager and assistant sporting director prior to his promotion in 2022.
His appointment this time around has been made by FSG president Mike Gordon who made an immediate beeline for Ward after Hughes opted to end his two-and-a-half year stay with the Premier League giants to seal a switch to the Middle East this summer.
The news comes amidst a period of uncertainty withing the Liverpool hierarchy with both Hughes and former chief executive of football at FSG Michael Edwards exiting the club this year, and the owners on the verge of selling a 38% stake to 1892 Holdings for a round £2 billion.
It's understood the consortium buying into the Reds, which is headed by Amit Bhatia and includes Amazon supremo Jeff Bezos, includes an option for a full takeover should FSG opt to sell-up in the future.
Ward's return to Anfield, which was confirmed on Saturday, will see him play a key role in the club's new strategy of signing highly-regarded young prospects; a tact he has previous oversight of having acted as FSG's technical director for the past two years.
The new sporting director will work alongside assistant sporting director David Woodfine, chief scout Barry Hunter and FSG's director of football development Pedro Marques to help aid head coach Andoni Iraola's own management team.
