Orlando City B announced on Thursday that it has named former U.S. Men’s National Team defender Oguchi Onyewu as the club’s new Sporting Director.

Onyewu will report directly to OCB General Manager Mike Potempa.

“We are delighted to directly involve someone of Oguchi’s stature into our next generation youth movement,” Potempa said in a club release. “Onyewu has played a vital role within the soccer community in the United States for the past 15 years, both at the club and country level. The experience and immediate professionalism Oguchi will bring to our project are essential traits we believe will only enhance the culture of our team in 2019 and beyond.”

With OCB, Onyewu will oversee daily technical operations and compliance, manage player relations and support recruitment efforts for the club.

Onyewu, 37, retired from professional soccer in 2017 after a short one-year stint with the Philadelphia Union. Prior to that, the American defender, who posted 69 career caps for the national team, spent almost the entirety of his career overseas, spending time with clubs such as Italian side AC Milan, Portugal’s Sporting CP, and English teams Newcastle United and Sheffield Wednesday.

OCB, which will make a return to the field in 2019 in USL League One, the third division in US Soccer. After taking a year off, OCB will now head into the new season under the direction of a general manager (Potempa), sporting director (Onyewu), and head coach (Fernando Jose De Argila Irurita).

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