Union sporting director Ernst Tanner: Beyond the pitch

The Union's top personnel guy always wanted his life to be in sports, despite his father's wishes concerning agriculture.

Union Sporting Director Ernst Tanner came to Philadelphia in 2018.Read moreJOSE F. MORENO / Staff Photographer

by Marcus Hayes

Published Nov. 2, 2022, 10:00 a.m. ET

We used to know better the people who ran our teams, but both trust and access have diminished. The men and women behind the moves — people like Phillies legend Paul Owens, 76ers personality Pat Williams, or Harry Gamble, who touched every corner of football in the region, including the Eagles — have become dehumanized.

In an effort at humanizing the most polarizing men in Philly, we posed the same four questions to the people who run the Phillies, Sixers, Eagles, Flyers, and Union. None of the questions deal with their teams, their leagues, or their careers; rather, we wanted glimpses into their personalities.

This installment: Ernst Tanner, sporting director with the Philadelphia Union.

Tanner took over his current role in 2018 when Earnie Stewart was hired as GM of the United States Men’s National Team. Tanner brought a resume filled with developmental successes, which continued with the Union, and a cascade of winning followed, culminating in the Union’s first appearance in the MLS Cup championship Saturday at Los Angeles. A native of Traunstein, Germany, Tanner has mixed homegrown talent and international sturdies and influenced team strategy.

And to think, he might have spent his life driving a tractor.

What would your career be if you were not running a pro sports team? An engineer? A truck driver? Heaven forbid, a sportswriter?

My father always wanted me to be a farmer and my aunt wanted me to be a pharmacist. Me, I always wanted to do something in sports, so, luckily, I was able to become a sporting director.

You have to disassociate yourself from your job for a calendar year, but you are completely anonymous. How would you spend that year? As a campaign volunteer? In Florence, immersed in culture? Learning standup comedy?

In my profession, I am lucky enough to travel the world but if I was away from my job for a year, I would travel to places in the world I haven’t been.

You have all been athletes. Which athlete’s career, regardless of sport, would you like to have experienced? Bill Russell? Babe Ruth? Pele? Udonis Haslem?

That’s a difficult one. I am obviously fond of soccer and I always loved our German stars in the past, unfortunately, we don’t have too many now, but to be like (Bundesliga legend) Gerd Müller and score a lot of goals? That would have been something I would have loved.

You have the chance to be a two-term president of the United States. Do you take it? Why, or why not?

I am not political at all. Being from Germany, if I want to know something about United States politics, I ask the guys in the office here and always get very diplomatic answers.