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Sevilla FC have reached an agreement for Víctor Orta to become the club’s Sporting Director for the next three seasons.
Víctor Orta (Madrid, 1978) has always been passionate about football. Although he studied Chemistry, his knowledge of international football meant he initially started off as a sports journalist, before working alongside football agents. In 2005, Carlos Suárez, the President of Real Valladolid, offered him a complete change in career to become their Sporting Director.
He joined Sevilla FC a year later as Technical Director, just as the team began to win trophies, beginning with the UEFA Cup success in Eindhoven. In his first spell at the club, the team won two UEFA Cups, a UEFA Super Cup, two Copas del Rey and a Spanish Super Cup, as well as helping the reserves reach the Second Division.
He left the club in 2013 to join Zenit St Petersburg, with the Russian side finishing as runners-up in the league and reaching the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League. He then returned to Spain to take up the role at Elche CF, who managed to comfortably stay up, but were ultimately relegated due to financial issues.
Orta then moved to England, becoming Sporting Director at Middlesbrough FC, who won promotion to the Premier League at the first attempt in the 2015/16 season but immediately returned to the second tier.
He then moved on to fellow Championship side Leeds United ahead of the 2017/18 season. He helped them achieve their return to the top flight after sixteen years in the Championship and League 1, after bringing Marcelo Bielsa to the club as first team coach. Leeds finished in the top half in their first season, with a respectable ninth-placed finish, but then went on to finish 17th in the 2021/22 season, and were relegated last season. Orta left the club a few weeks before relegation was confirmed, after six seasons at the helm.
