Rodolfo Borrell Marco (born 31 January 1971) is a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach, who is currently a sporting director at

Austin FC Austin FC is an American professional soccer club based in Austin, Texas. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 2018, the club began play in the 2021 season. Their home stadium is Q2 ...

Management career

Barcelona

Borrell was a youth coach at

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, where he coached some of the world's finest emerging talent at their renowned 'La Masia' Academy. Borrell still possesses one of the most successful records in history of Youth Football coaching at F.C. Barcelona. He worked at Barcelona between 1995 and 2008, where he formed part of the team that developed

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...

, Gerard Pique and

Cesc Fàbregas Francesc "Cesc" Fàbregas Soler (; ; born 4 May 1987) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Italian Serie B club Como. Fàbregas came through ''La Masia'', Barcelona's youth academy, leaving at 16 when h ...

English Premier League

In July 2009, Liverpool agreed a deal to bring in Barcelona youth coaches Rodolfo Borrell and Pep Segura to the club. In the mid-late 2000s, first team coach

Rafael Benitez Rafael may refer to: * Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin * Rafael, California * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology * Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane Fiction * ''R ...

made it a priority of his to improve the club's Academy, hence why Rodolfo was brought in. After two successful seasons as head coach of the U18s, Rodolfo became Liverpool's Reserve Team Head Coach in May 2011."It's a great honour for me. The club have shown they have great confidence in my ability and I am happy. It is a job that means my name will sit forever alongside the likes of

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and Sammy Lee. They are big names in Liverpool's history and it is also an important role because it is the final step in the Academy. The players need to be ready if they are to make the move into the first-team set-up and I am going to fight for that." After a two-year spell as head coach of Liverpool U18s and an eighteen-month stint in charge of the Reserve side, he then became head of academy coaching at

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. Recruited in the summer of 2009 by Rafael Benitez, he and compatriot Jose Segura helped revolutionise Liverpool's ailing Academy. Having failed to provide the first team with a key player since Steven Gerrard who made his debut in 1998, the academy produced numerous talents since Borrell's appointment. In March 2014, Rodolfo was appointed as

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

global technical director. In July 2016, Manchester City appointed him as 1st team assistant coach to

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of club Manchester City. He is considered one of the greatest managers of all time and holds the re ...

. Rodolfo was promoted by Guardiola from head of academy coaching, a role he had held since July 2014.

Austin FC

In June 2023, Borrell was appointed to be named the Sporting Director for MLS side

, replacing former Manchester City captain and United States international

Claudio Reyna Claudio Reyna (born July 20, 1973) is an American former professional soccer player and current executive. He most recently served as sporting director of Austin FC. A former midfielder, he spent most of his professional career in Europe, pla ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borrell, Rodolfo 1971 births Living people Sportspeople from Barcelona Liverpool F.C. non-playing staff Manchester City F.C. non-playing staff Association football coaches Spanish football managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Iraklis F.C. (Thessaloniki) managers