The Philadelphia Union appears to have found its next sporting director, a hiring that very much falls in line with the organization’s recent trend toward fully integrating its academy into the first team.



Multiple sources tell The Athletic that the Union is set to announce this week the hiring Ernst Tanner. Most recently at Red Bull Salzburg as the head of its academy and youth set-up, Tanner has a strong reputation throughout Europe for mining talent and developing it for Salzburg’s youth team.



He held similar posts in Germany with 1860 Munich and Hoffenheim. At Hoffenheim, he also served as sporting director for a season.



The hiring of Tanner comes a week after Earnie Stewart officially left the Union as sporting director to take the newly created general manager position with the United States Soccer Federation (USSF). In that role, Stewart will oversee the re-charting of the men’s national team’s course as the program...