Liverpool owners to appoint key Man City global expansion figure

Liverpool are working to hire the man who helped Manchester City’s multi-club model take off, Benfica’s current technical director Pedro Marques, according to a report

Marques left City back in 2018 to take up a post at Benfica, where he first worked as a youth technical director, responsible for player development up to B-team level and overseeing a transition into the first team.

However it is his work at City Football Group (CFG) which might be most intriguing to Liverpool fans.

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Michael Edwards has rejoined Liverpool’s parent company, FSG, as CEO of Football. Part of his remit will be to establish and run a new multi-club model which can compete with what CFG have got.

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

Marques coordinated CFG’s global expansion

Marques comes with extensive experience in this field.

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

He was 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.

The Portugal native would not be employed by Liverpool, instead, he would be working for the ownership group directly, according to a report in the Athletic.

Liverpool’s post-Klopp shakeup

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

Edwards is soon expected to appoint the Bournemouth technical director, Richard Hughes, as the new sporting director at Anfield.

Plans are ongoing to announce a successor to Klopp with Xabi Alonso thought to be the frontrunner.

Marques is known to key figures at Liverpool due to doing the deal which brought Darwin Nunez from Lisbon to Anfield in 2022.