Lee Congerton

Playing career

Congerton is the son of Rhyl player Dave Congerton. While being educated at Rhyl High School he played youth international football for Wales. He signed a semi-professional contract with Rhyl, before a professional trial at Wrexham where he met Brian Flynn.

However, realising that he enjoyed coaching more than playing, Congerton signed a semi-professional contract with Colwyn Bay, allowing him to study for a degree. He then spent a spell at Weymouth, before signing a professional contract at Crewe Alexandra.

Coaching

His career at Crewe was blighted by injuries. It was then that Flynn, by then manager of Wrexham, offered Congerton a coaching position as Youth System Director. After Denis Smith took over as Wrexham manager Congerton joined the coaching team at Liverpool in 2002, before leaving the club in 2005 for Chelsea.

At Chelsea, he was initially appointed youth team coach by Jose Mourinho. However, after the appointment of Frank Arnesen as Sporting Director, Congerton was appointed chief scout, alongside Brendan Rodgers as reserve-team coach, and academy manager Neil Bath. The team's purpose was to scout and then coach young players into the first team, which included: Ryan Bertrand; Daniel Sturridge; Gael Kakuta; Jeffrey Bruma; Scott Sinclair and Fabio Borini. The team worked through various Chelsea first team managers, including the appointment of Andre Villas Boas.

After the sacking of Villas Boas, the entire sporting and youth team were dismissed. After Arnesen was appointed Sporting Director of Hamburg in 2011, Congerton was appointed Technical Director, working alongside head coach, Thorsten Fink.

In October 2012, West Bromwich Albion approached Hamburg to request to appoint Congerton to replace their former Technical Director Dan Ashworth; this was immediately turned down by Hamburger SV.

On 12 March 2014, Sunderland appointed Congerton as their Sporting Director.

On 15 March 2017, Celtic appointed Congerton as their Head of Recruitment.