A number of Leeds United players, both past and present, have family members who have roles in football outside of just playing.
For example, Charlie Cresswell’s father, Richard, was a coach for a period in the Leeds United academy while his son was coming through the ranks.
However, that is not the only example. Gabriel Gudmundsson’s father was a player as well, with Niklas Gudmundsson having played for Blackburn Rovers and Ipswich Town.
On top of that, Sebastiaan Bornauw has a father who works higher up in football. The Belgian has spent time as part of the hierarchical structure of a footballing giant in Europe.
Sebastiaan Bornauw, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Gabriel Gudmundsson and Daniel Farke after Leeds United defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.
Photo by Pat Scaasi/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Leeds defender Sebastiaan Bornauw’s father takes RSC Anderlecht role
Kenneth Bornauw has been a marketing manager for Heineken and a Sales Director for Unilever. However, he also spent time as Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft’s Brussels branch.
His son came through the ranks with Belgian giants RSC Anderlecht, having joined the club in 2009. He only played in one full professional season in 2018/19 before his sale to Bundesliga outfit 1. FC Köln in 2019/20.
The 26-year-old then joined VfL Wolfsburg in 2021. During that time, his father was appointed as CEO of Anderlecht’s Non-Sports department in April 2022. He was in post from then until July 2025, the same month his son joined Leeds for £5.1 million.
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Now, he has returned to the club this October officially, but as CEO of the football club instead. It’s reported by VRT that a special board meeting saw a plan proposed by Marc Coucke which was approved.
It means Michael Verschueren returns as chairman and Kenneth Bornauw becomes the new CEO. The duo takes up their new positions shortly. It was given the green light by a special board meeting on Wednesday.
They add that he left Anderlecht in June as CEO Non-Sports after missing out on the CEO position. Now, in a redesigned management structure, he is now more senior than Tim Borguet, the current CEO Sports, and will therefore have the final say on the most important decisions.
Leeds faced the Belgian side in 1974/75 under Don Revie in the European Cup, winning 3-0 and 1-0. They also played them again in 2000/01 in the Champions League, winning 2-1 and 4-1.
Sebastiaan Bornauw will be delighted for his father, but Bornauw is already delighted to be a Leeds player. That’s despite playing in just one game so far, and having not been involved in three of the seven matchday squads so far.
Commentator Sam Matterface was critical of Bornauw vs Sheffield Wednesday, but he has simply not had any rhythm so far this campaign.
Ilia Gruev in action for Leeds.
Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images
Ilia Gruev’s father also takes on new role
Bornauw has already been injured this season for Leeds, unlike his teammate Ilia Gruev. The latter is also down the pecking order, but he has had to feature due to Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka’s injury issues.
However, like Bornauw, Gruev’s father has taken on a new role in football recently. Last week, German outlet Kicker revealed Gruev’s father was leaving third-division club FC Ingolstadt to the Rhine.
That’s because he is taking a role as Fortuna Dusseldorf’s new assistant coach alongside Florian Junge. Also named Ilia, the 55-year-old is joining the side Ao Tanaka was signed from.
Previously, he worked as an assistant coach at Arminia Bielefeld, SV Werder Bremen, 1. FC Kaiserslautern, and MSV Duisburg, among others. Gruev also served as head coach of the latter for three years from 2015 to 2018.