The news that Luke Sassano is leaving FC Cincinnati for family reason means the club is losing one of the key individuals who helped shape the club in its early days.
Hired March 14, 2018, Sassano was named the team’s first and only technical director. The role meant he oversaw the club’s scouting program, transfer negotiations and developed the platform for the FC Cincinnati Academy. He carried out those massively important tasks quietly, and usually out of public view.
Given the job of helping creating the 2019 inaugural MLS roster, he started working for FCC just before the 2018 USL season began.
Since that time, he’s crisscrossed the planet scouting for future FC Cincinnati players. Once he returned to Cincy, he was a staple at training sessions, where stood off to the side, usually on the phone building his network and sipping coffee. When the team moved on from Alan Koch in May, he also added the role of interim assistant coach, providing help to Yoann Damet during training sessions and on the bench at games.
The Orange and Blue might be a young club, but Sassano was here long enough to become a team institution. Now, that changes.
“Going through the process of helping to build an MLS club and a team and infrastructure in the limited amount of time we had to do it was still an exciting adventure,” he said. “But at this time, what’s transpired in terms of energy and time away from my family, and with the birth of my daughter in the offseason, some complications and my with being very sick, has afforded me a moment to put things in perspective.
“At the same time,” Sassano added. “I know the club is going to be in very good hands moving forward. It’s the right time to step away and focus more on my family at the moment.”
In stepping away, he stepped down as the club’s technical director. The position won’t be filled. Instead, Gerard Nijkamp will continue working as the general manager, while Hunter Freeman, who’s been an FCC lead domestic scout, has been promoted to director of scouting and player recruitment.
“For me, he’s always been kind of my right arm,” Sassano said of Freeman. “I’m expecting nothing but success with him and I think he’s really put in a lot of the effort and the work to earn the position.”
As for Sassano, however, Nijkamp praised the former technical director for his assistance learning MLS rules and rosters, in addition to adding the Dutchman into the FCC family.
“It shows a lot of courage from Luke’s side to leave the club for his private reasons,” Nijkamp said. “We are grateful as a club for what he did for FC Cincinnati. I hope he will find a beautiful future next somewhere in professional football.”
