Dan Ashworth's new role confirmed as he makes return after brutal Man Utd exit

Dan Ashworth has made his first return to football since leaving , with the 54-year-old being named the Association's first Chief Football Officer. Ashworth left United in December, just five months after joining as their sporting director.

The Red Devils had been involved in a protacted negotiation with to be able to bring in the Englishman. But amid their dreadful season and reports of clashes with controlling co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Ashworth moved on.

He has since stayed out of the game, but is now returning to an old stomping ground. announced on Wednesday that Ashworth had been appointed to the newly-created position of Chief Football Officer with the governing body.

Ashworth has been tasked with leading the FA's high-performance strategy with strategic oversight across the England men's and women's teams. In his new job, Ashworth will work closely with men’s technical director John McDermott and Kay Cossington’s successor in the women’s technical directorate, while reporting into FA CEO Mark Bullingham.

One of Ashworth's other main tasks will be to oversee the regeneration of St George's Park. The state-of-the-art training base will undergo a significant upgrade ahead of Euro 2028, which England will co-host.

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Ashworth has been challenged to 'optimise' the potential of the national football centre and building systems that will 'underpin' the FA's performance targets. That includes creating winning England teams and developing more homegrown coaches.

It marks a return to the FA for Ashworth, with the executive having been the director of elite development and then technical director at the governing body between 2013 and 2019. His return has been hailed by FA chief Bullingham.

"Dan is a hugely influential and respected figure in the game, who has a long-standing commitment to England football," said Bullingham. "We are very happy to welcome him back in this new role.”

Despite his exit from United, Ashworth does remain respected within the football . Legendary Red Devils skipper expressed shock at his departure from Old Trafford.

“I'm really shocked that this has happened,” he told NBC Sports at the time. “It's not a great look at all and it's something that will need explaining. What's really clear is that there is a fracture here, something has happened.

“You can't bring someone in at the level of Dan Ashworth and then lose him after five months and think something hasn't gone wrong. The fans are now going to ask the question: what's gone wrong? They're going to speculate, it's going to leave huge voids.

“I think you're better off punching us in the face with the truth sometimes when it's so obvious that there's been something that has gone wrong between the personalities of Dan Ashworth, Omar Berrada, Dave Brailsford, whoever it is in the last few months that have obviously not got on with each other or it's not been working.

“Something like that can't be mutual. I think when Ineos came into Manchester United everyone knew there were going to be huge changes. You would have expected large changes but not changes for this position. Dan Ashworth was headhunted for many, many months.

"He was chased for 10 months, on leave for four or five months, he was paid millions of pounds for. I worked with Dan Ashworth at the FA for two years and he's been very successful wherever he's been - , , the FA, at Newcastle.”

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