Shocker in the Bronx: Sporting Director David Lee is leaving NYCFC | OneFootball

On Tuesday, New York City FC released some shocking news: Sporting Director David Lee is leaving the club after over ten years. What makes this news shocking is not that he is leaving. Rather, it is the fact that he is doing so before the end of the season and on his own accord. If he were to leave, then one would assume it would have been both him and the team agreeing to go different ways.

Lee is heading to Sporting Kansas City and will become the President of Soccer Operations & General Manager there. This will be a change for him after he has been NYCFC's sporting director since November 2019, and has had a variety of roles since joining the Bronx side in 2014.

David Lee was a decent sporting director for NYCFC

As the sporting director, many fans have criticized Lee and his lack of big-name signings. There was the feeling that his tenure was not great, especially since NYCFC kept the former head coach, Nick Cushing, around longer than he should have been. At the same time, the Pigeons won the 2021 MLS Cup under Lee. Of course, the argument was that most of the players who led the team to the win were signed under the previous sporting director, Claudio Reyna.

However, Lee was responsible for signing multiple Homerown players, including Tayvon Gray. He brought in players like Guðmundur Þórarinsson, Santiago Rodríguez, Alonso Martínez, and Matt Freese. He was also responsible for obtaining Head Coach Ronny Deila, who led NYCFC to glory in 2021. And of course, he recently signed Pascal Jansen, who has been night and day compared to Cushing.

In other words, Lee has been a solid sporting director, and leaves a team that has been more successful than fans tend to realize. The Boys in Blue only missed the playoffs once during his tenure, and twice during his entire time with the club. Plus, he is ending his time after some vital moves this summer: the acquisition of Nicolás Fernández Mercau and the extension of Freese.

Nevertheless, change is sometimes good, and there could have been some argument that Lee should have left in the offseason to freshen things up.

Again, Lee's departure is shocking based on the fact that the season is almost at an end. It is possible that NYCFC blessed this move because there is not much Lee would have done at this time. The club might have a few options for his replacement despite expressing that they will begin the search for a new sporting director.

The unexpected move will make the next few months interesting for NYCFC. The club must bring in someone who will work well with everyone, especially Jansen. Oh, and this might be crazy, but the next sporting director should come from outside of City Football Group. A fresh face might be what this team needs.