Chelsea turn their attention to Leeds and Leverkusen for the sporting director role

Chelsea are looking at Victor Orta and Tim Steidten for the sporting director role

According to the Telegraph and Leeds Live, Chelsea are looking at Leeds United’s Victor Orta and Bayer Leverkusen’s Tim Steidten for the vacant sporting director role after the snub from RB Salzburg’s Christoph Freund.

It was only a few days back that the Blues had an agreement in place with Freund to take up the position, however, no deal was struck with Salzburg and the 45-year-old eventually stayed in Austria.

This has left Chelsea in a position where they were in during the summer transfer window – without a sporting director. Co-owner Todd Boehly stepped in as an interim to go through the transfer window, but the club is now looking to hire an experienced candidate for that position before the World Cup.

They are set to begin talks with Leverkusen director Steidten, while it is also claimed that Leeds sporting director Orta is one of the options discussed.

The issue with the former is that he was only appointed as the director of Leverkusen this summer, while the latter’s work at Elland Road has taken the club back to playing regular top-division football.

With regards to knowing English football a bit more, Orta has an advantage having worked at Middlesbrough for 18 months before. He also has worked at the Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg and Spain’s Elche in the past. Meanwhile, Steidten has worked for 10 years in different roles at Werder Bremen before joining Leverkusen in 2019.

Both directors have dealt with Chelsea this past summer. Orta and the Blues were in contact with regards to the transfer of Raphinha from Leeds to Stamford Bridge. The Brazilian ended up going to Barcelona. Steidten, on the other hand, cracked a deal to sign Blues’ winger Callum Hudson-Odoi on a season-long loan.

More Chelsea News:

• Chelsea star Christian Pulisic reveals how his bad blood with Thomas Tuchel started
• Christoph Freund has released a statement confirming that he is not joining Chelsea
• John Barnes predicts it will be between Chelsea and Arsenal for the fourth spot in the league

Only time will tell where Chelsea go from here. Not getting Freund would have been a blow. But, it is time to focus on the future and get their appointment spot on to work with manager Graham Potter.