Having flown in alongside Andrew Cavenagh to be in attendance as Rangers saw off Fenerbache, Steinsson was present as Leeds earned a 2-2 draw with QPR in London two days later and returned to Glasgow for a memorable Old Firm win the following day. The week before, Steinsson and Cavenagh flew in from the US to attend Rangers’ 3-1 win away in Istanbul against Jose Mourinho’s side.
Andrew Cavenagh and Gretar Steinsson watch on at Parkhead (Image: SNS Group)
Led by the 49ers Enterprises and health tycoon Cavenagh, the deal’s major prospective investor, communication of the majority stake purchase could be made public as early as this month. As the Rangers Review reported in March, the deal moved a step closer to completion after the key parties received their first tranche of the legal paperwork required to bring about regime change at Ibrox.
While Steinsson is not a financier behind the deal and doesn’t boast the San Francisco association of Paraag Marathe, the Leeds chairman and president of 49ers Enterprises, the former player turned football executive is a vital figure in this process. Viewed as the trusted voice for the 49ers on football matters and, increasingly, a visible figure at Ibrox, Steinsson’s near-decade of working in the business of football has earned him a key role that will stretch over two of Britain’s most prominent clubs, Leeds and Rangers.
Steinsson, an Icelandic internationalist who managed nearly 50 caps for his country, played in his homeland, Switzerland, Holland, England and Turkey across a career that ended at 31. Best known for four years at Bolton Wanderers from 2008-12, after retiring in 2013 due to a knee injury Steinsson’s work to form a career off the pitch began. In all reality, the 43-year-old’s path to work in football had started long before. While it’s common to identify players-turned-managers whose behaviour on the training pitch always deemed them likely to move into the dugout, Steinsson represents the modern equivalent - he was focused on an off-field role in football long before retiring.
Having attained the FA’s technical director level 5 and studied a postgraduate programme in football management at the Johan Cruyff Institute, a renowned facility for football management education, it was his formative years working under Louis van Gaal in the Netherlands that exposed Steinsson to the many facets and functions of a football club alongside coaching. The contrast in executive structures abroad compared to the reliance on a manager in British football was apparent to him.
“In English football, I realised that, when they fired the coach, everything is a big smokescreen, that there is nothing behind,” he told the Cruyff Institute in a presentation which argued more former players must journey from the sport of football to the business of football.
Continuing, he explained why athletes can quickly transition into off-pitch roles, saying: “Their ability to adapt to a rollercoaster of emotions constantly, every week, something that is almost impossible to learn if you are not an athlete. It is quite an experience and bringing this to the offices is very important. Living under pressure, knowing how to manage it and make decisions, we are also used to that.”
Steinsson has developed a strong reputation within football across spells at Everton, Tottenham, AZ Alkmaar and Fleetwood Town, where he became the club’s first-ever technical director. There was also a brief spell advising the Icelandic FA between jobs.
His first role at Fleetwood Town coming after a brief period scouting for AZ saw him handed the reigns at the League One club in 2015, judged a good fit due to his knowledge of the English game and culture blended with a strong vision for the modern role of a technical director.
Steinsson became the 49ers group technical director late last year (Image: SNS Group)
From there, before joining Leeds in 2023 the Icelander spent three years at Everton where he took on a more prominent role in recruitment, assisting long-term mentor Marcel Brands, now PSV president, who occupied the director of football role when Steinsson played at AZ Alkmaar and later at Goodison Park. There was also a year as Tottenham's performance director, working with Fabio Paratici as the Italian’s No.2, although that short stint was not helped by Paratici’s 30-month ban from football.
Steinsson has worked across various roles and job descriptions, from scout to technical director. He’s also occupied different functions depending on the structure of the team around him at different clubs. Much mystique can cloud the role of sporting directors as a broad term and the varying nuances of their jobs. For example, some clubs may have a head of recruitment, a sporting director and a CEO who all influence transfers and work in tandem, whereas others will have more clearly defined structures and territorial responsibilities. As ever in football a well-functioning executive structure largely depends on well-functioning relationships - the best idea in the world cannot work without the correct leadership and buy-in across the board.
Indeed, Rangers’ own hunt for a sporting director, a costly exercise to reinstate the office occupied by Ross Wilson from 2019-2023, is a complex example of various ideas and visions. Under the leadership of John Bennett, the club wanted to move away from an ‘overarching’ sporting director but moved towards an ‘overarching’ CEO, thus lacking real football decision-making at the top of the club.
Nils Koppen’s recent move from head of football recruitment to technical director was largely influenced by the blurred lines between the job the Belgian arrived to undertake and the jurisdiction he was granted. For example, ahead of last summer’s window, Koppen did not have a leading vote on contract renewals or the academy pathway. Koppen has demonstrated a proclivity to unearth real talent at good value - Hamza Igamane, Jefte, Clinton Nsiala - but anyone in charge of squad planning requires autonomy beyond incomings.
Rangers technical director Nils Koppen and CEO Patrick Stewart (Image: Craig Foy - SNS Group)
At Leeds, Steinsson arrived as the club’s technical director soon after the 49ers purchased a majority stake in the club following their relegation to the Championship, having initially held a minority 15 per cent share. In the summer of 2023 the club moved in response to a difficult period in the transfer market by taking away the control that one man, former sporting director Victor Ora, had commanded over incomings and outgoings. Like many organisations, they seemingly wanted to implement a more holistic approach to transfers and squad building.
Read more:
Inside Nils Koppen's promotion: What's changed as further appointment could follow
Inside Rangers' sporting director hunt: Wilson, Koppen, why Stewart has made call
Nick Hammond joined the club as a recruitment consultant that same summer while CEO Angus Kinnear also had a hand in transfers. Steinsson and head of recruitment Jordan Miles completed the prominent figures in a collective transfer approach which, like any, carried positives and negatives. The fact that Everton-bound Kinnear is likely to take Hammond with him to Merseyside tells of the pair’s strong particular working bond.
Communication that Steinsson would leave Elland Road for a wider role in the 49ers group was made public last November. Leeds stated that the former Iceland internationalist was set to pioneer “industry trend research, technology and player advancements” across the group which, at that point, did not boast any new projects. However, as reported since, talks between the two parties surrounding the Rangers takeover stretch back to before Steinsson’s role change, in October. His move within the company was very much influenced by this opportunity north of the border.
“Ultimately he's in this umbrella role, not quite day-to-day Leeds, but still very much invested in Leeds and still very much involved in Leeds, but not in the day-to-day minutiae. You could definitely see him doing a similar thing with Rangers at the same time,” one source said.
“The 49ers briefed Steinsson's move as a similar role at Leeds but with a slightly expanded scope. Steinsson’s new job responsibilities would be developing global football talent for nominees to compete, industry research, potential academy partnerships, new technologies. And at the time, they said he would contribute to other projects if they arose.”
There’s a feeling that an overarching strategising role, slightly removed from the day-to-day dynamics, suits Steinsson’s management style well. Held in high regard by his NFL franchise bosses, the former player is viewed as their trusted voice on footballing matters, hence why he joined up at Elland Road as that takeover went through and will be a prominent figure as the American's latest venture is confirmed.
He is seen as a straight-talking and honest individual who can be decisive in some moments and cut-throat in others. More than one source emphasised his focus on due diligence and spoke of a composed individual who very much keeps himself to himself in terms of a public profile. For many, that is what this type of role should entail, work in the background to support and improve what happens in public. He still attends the large majority of Leeds matches and is expected to split his time between the clubs and new ventures moving forward. Steinsson is believed to have some involvement in Rangers' appointment of a sporting director which is expected to be announced this month.
Read more:
Who is Andrew Cavenagh? First Ibrox trip, football background, US business history
Concerning Igamane trend shows negative of new role, Butland and Dessers truth
Brands, his former boss, has said of Steinsson: “He’s like a pitbull — if he sees something and wants something, he goes for it.”
One source explained that while it was Marathe who was the early face in the media attached to the Ibrox takeover, Steinsson will have a wider role between Leeds and Rangers moving forward and is likely to be a more visible figurehead alongside Cavenagh. The only Rangers match Marathe has attended was the 2-1 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford which was believed to be the result of an independent invitation. In contrast, Cavenagh and Steinsson attended both legs of the most recent Europa League round and the Old Firm at Parkhead last month.
Another noted that, in recent weeks, both Cavenagh and Steinsson have referred to Rangers as “we” in conversations before and after matches. Cavenagh’s first game, a 3-1 win over St Johnstone in January that featured off-pitch protests, may not have shown Ibrox at its boisterous best but subsequent games like that evening against Fenerbahce and the win across the city are a reminder of the potential this club has.
Cavenagh first attended Ibrox in January (Image: SNS Group)
As previously explained, Cavenagh is by no means a total football novice. He played as a student growing up, but he lacks the expertise and context that someone like Steinsson, rooted in the game his entire life and with experience as a player and executive, can provide on behalf of the other major donor in this particular transaction. Football has always been one of Cavenagh’s loves in life and he was a talented goalkeeper at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. It has been noted he does not refer to the game as 'soccer' in conversation and has an affection for and knowledge of the sport and that is behind his desire to invest in Rangers.
The pair also received a tour of the Rangers Training Ground facilities last month with technical director Koppen. That did not include any formal meetings with staff, although some informal introductions were made.
Another source told the Rangers Review: “The 49ers have this approach where they talk about business when business is done. Gretar Steinsson very much holds to that. I think that's his own personal stance as well.”
Steinsson may well remain in the background going forward and will not assume the responsibility of an incumbent sporting director at Ibrox. His role and expertise, however, will be influential on behalf of the San Francisco 49ers as this significant takeover enters its closing stages.