Christopher Vivell has claimed Chelsea are building the most exciting project in global football following his appointment as technical director. The former RB Leipzig chief takes the role vacated by Petr Cech following the takeover of the club in the summer by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
Vivell's arrival, a long-anticipated appointment, follows in the line of Joe Shields as co-director of recruitment and talent, Laurence Stewart as a technical director to focus on football globally and Paul Winstanley as director of global talent and transfers. The Blues' latest director will bring more experience of working within a multi-club model, having worked for both RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg.
The German native was responsible for recruitment and scouting across all age groups and also spent time co-ordinating the overall strategy for squad building across Red Bull's football group. In his role at Stamford Bridge, Vivell is expected to provide support to Graham Potter and the ownership group as a key member of the leadership group.
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He said: "Chelsea are building the most exciting project in global football and I'm extremely proud to be joining the club to continue to succeed, develop and grow. Under the new ownership, Graham Potter and the broader sporting team, there is a clear and sustainable philosophy underpinned by performance analysis, data and innovation and I am looking forward to playing a part in that."
Boehly has previously spoken about his hopes to follow in the footsteps of City and Red Bull groups and praised the expertise of their multi-club models, and is now set to draw upon the experience of Shields, formerly of Manchester City and Vivell, while Cook's responsibilities appear that they could oversight more broadly.
The Chelsea owner spoke in September about his vision, and this appears to have impressed Vivell.
Boehly said: "We want to find the best talent and we’re going to put those people in place. It’s no different to running any human capital business where it’s all about getting the right resources, making them collaborate, getting them organised, and thinking about how you have a global business at a local level.
“We’re going to be continuously adding resources. We’ve talked about having a multi-club model. I would love to continue to build out the footprint. There is different countries where there are advantages to having a club - Red Bull does a really good job with Leipzig and Salzburg, both of which are playing in the Champions League. So they’ve figured out how to make that work.
“You have Man City that also has a big network of clubs. The challenge that Chelsea has right now, or at least one of them, is when you have 18/19/20-year-old superstars, you can loan them out to clubs, but you put their development in someone else’s hands.
“So our goal is to make sure we can show pathways for our young superstars to get onto the Chelsea pitch, while getting them real game time. And for me, the way to do that is through another club in a really competitive league in Europe."
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