Why Philadelphia Union’s Ernst Tanner politely said no

At some point in recent weeks, Union sporting director Ernst Tanner was approached by the US Football Association’s consulting firm to find the governing body’s next sporting director.

It was more than coincidence that the man who succeeded Earnie Stewart when he joined Union was also a candidate to succeed Stewart at US Soccer. Stewart recommended Tanner as a candidate for the job, a source told The Inquirer after the Athletic initially reported it.

It’s a sign of the strong relationship between the two men – and the impressive pipeline of players Union has sent to the men’s USA national team program. In fact, it could continue in Stewart’s new position as director of football at Netherlands’ PSV Eindhoven, a powerhouse in that country that plays regularly in the UEFA Champions League and Europa League. If Stewart sees a Union prospect looming that he could sign before bigger teams take notice, he likely won’t hesitate before finalizing a deal.

Stewart’s last official day at US Soccer was February 15 and he began his tenure at PSV on Wednesday.

Exactly which person or persons addressed Tanner and with whom he spoke directly is unknown. Much of the US Soccer and search consultancy Sportsology’s trial has been hidden from the public. The key thing we’ve heard is US Soccer President Cindy Cone’s repeated assertion that the goal is to hire the athletic director within weeks of the start of the Women’s World Cup, which would mean early July.

But we do know that Tanner turned down Sportsology’s overtures, and it caused quite a stir. Why would one of the top front office managers of a premier MLS team turn down what on paper appears to be one of the most prestigious jobs in American football?

» READ MORE: Earnie Stewart and Brian McBride leave US Soccer, giving men’s national team a ‘clean canvas’

The answer, a source said, is that this isn’t the first time Tanner has turned down a national association that offers him a big job. He has done so several times in his career, including with the Austrian FA, who knew him particularly well from his years of success as head of youth academy at Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg.

The environments of national teams and club teams are not the same. Having such a big job in US soccer isn’t just about influencing a senior team’s playing style and youth development beneath it. In fact, for some time now, the engine room of youth player development in the US has been shifting away from the national team and towards professional clubs as MLS teams spend increasing amounts of money on their academies. Men’s clubs in the lower USL are now following suit, and many women’s soccer fans are hoping that NWSL teams will start building their own player pipelines in the years to come.

So does the rest of the world and has done for a long time.

So it can be said that if you want to have the greatest impact in developing good football players, get a job managing a club team and push them to spend big bucks on their youth academy. Tanner did that in Austria and he did that with the Union.

With that in mind, Tanner politely told Sportsology he wasn’t interested.

We don’t know much more about what US soccer and sports science was up to, aside from Peter Vermes, the Delran-born manager of Sporting Kansas City – the longest-serving boss in MLS and a US player at the 1990 World Cup – also refuse an offer. Vermes told the Kansas City Star last week without describing the offer, but did indicate he wasn’t interested. (He also noted that he is already in talks to extend his contract with Sporting.)

That we know little else about what happened or could happen in the coming months is another story.

» READ MORE: For Jim Curtin and the Union, Earnie Stewart wasn’t just a colleague, he was an ally