New club secretary at Barnsley FC
David Wernersson did not succeed as a player, but is now making a career off the field. Wernersson, who has a background as club manager and board member of LB07, will in future start working as a club secretary in the classic Championship club Barnsley FC.
When he stepped down as LB07 club manager last year, he did not think this opportunity would arise. Instead, he has worked at the company, "Gameinsight", which runs a digital platform with a focus on education and communication for players, coaches and clubs in the football world.
Wernersson enjoyed his job, but could not ignore the interest from England.
I have said that I want to work abroad, but I have not worked actively for it. This was an opportunity that arose and then I had to say yes. I had not applied and it is difficult to enter this market. I had not counted on this at all, he says to Fotbollskanalen.
Wernersson is already familiar with Barnsley's new Swedish CEO Khaled El-Ahmad, which made him an alternative to the assignment at the English club.
El-Ahmad has a background as a chief scout in Djurgården, but has also worked for City Football Group (CFG) for several years. Billionaire Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Khaldoon Al Mubarak founded CFG, which owns Manchester City, New York City, Lommel, Troyes and several other clubs. Barnsley wanted El-Ahmad in due to the Swede's experience and with the belief that he can develop the club's management, recruitment and academy, but also commercial activities.
Khaled was for a short period in Nyköpings Bis in 2014 and then I was a recent graduate from the university and had an internship there with a CSR job. That's how we got to know each other and since then we have taken different paths, but kept in touch a little sporadically. Now he heard from me and then I said yes. It is not often that you get this chance to work in England, says Wernersson.
But it was not just to say yes and jump on the mission. Wernersson has had to go through an interview process with other people in the club's management to get the role of club secretary.
- He (Khaled El-Ahmad) introduced me and then he was very careful that I would be interviewed by others in the club. I got an interview process with, among other things, the coo and a few others, so they had to make the assessment. Khaled took me as an alternative and then I did the interview with others. Swedes generally speak good English and understand how English football works. I have been a nerd and interested in English football for 25 years, so it has paid off a bit now. The former club secretary had also left, so there was a vacancy that needed to be filled.
