Stewart gets promoted

As the sporting director, Stewart will oversee the federation’s entire sports performance department, which includes the men’s and women’s senior and youth national team programs

LOS ANGELES — United States Soccer announce that men’s national team general manager Earnie Stewart would be promoted to sporting director overseeing the men’s and women’s national team programs.

In further organizational changes, former women’s World Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist Kate Markgraf has been hired as the first general manager of the women’s national team.

US Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro said the appointments were the latest effort in his bid to ensure that “soccer operations are run by soccer experts.” As the sporting director, Stewart will oversee the federation’s entire sports performance department, which includes the men’s and women’s senior and youth national team programs.

Cordeiro said the move was designed to make a “more streamlined structure” that would allow greater communication between the programs. Stewart, who earned 101 caps for the United States in his playing career, has spent time in executive roles at Dutch clubs NAC Breda and AZ, as well as the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer before he was named general manager of the men’s team last year.