Ex-Norwich City academy chief Gregg Broughton has been confirmed as sporting director of MLS side Chicago Fire. 

Broughton, who left Blackburn Rovers in the summer, has been undertaking consultancy work but has now returned to professional football in the States as part of their new club strategy after hiring former USA boss Gregg Berhalter as head coach and director of football.

He worked at Norwich as academy manager between 2014 and 2017 and played a key role in recruiting the likes of Max Aarons, Jamal Lewis, Ken Aboh, Ben Godfrey, Jon Rowe and Abu Kamara to Carrow Road. 

Stuart Webber's arrival as sporting director and an academy reshuffle saw Broughton depart and he subsequently worked at Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt before returning to the Championship with Blackburn. 

Broughton is now moving to Chicago Fire in a bid to improve their status in the MLS alongside the former USA coach. 

“I’m delighted to join Chicago Fire FC as sporting director and share Gregg Berhalter’s vision of making the Fire one of the top clubs in North America,” said Broughton.

“I look forward to supporting Gregg across all areas of the sporting department to develop a culture of excellence and create a player trading model that supports both signing and retaining the talent needed to drive success."

Chicago Fire finished bottom of the Eastern Conference last season, winning just seven of their 34 league matches. 

Ludovic Taillandier was subsequently dismissed, and Berhalter was appointed to oversee the club's footballing operations. Broughton will report into the Fire boss as they attempt to improve their fortunes. 

“Gregg brings a wealth of experience and knowledge from his time in Europe, and we’re excited to have him on board as our sporting director,” Berhalter said in an official statement. “He is a passionate leader with a proven track record of developing talent and building competitive teams.

"As a key member of our leadership team, Gregg will help establish a high-performance culture to drive sustained success across all areas of the sporting department.”

In an interview with the Pink Un over the summer, Broughton revealed that he identified Thorup as a potential head coach option during his time at Ewood Park. 

“He is somebody who sat atop a coach list we were running consistently in my previous role (at Blackburn), where you were looking at the best coaches across Europe in four different areas,” he said. “Firstly, are they, most importantly, able to win games?

"Secondly, can they bring in a style of football that helps you to win games, but also helps you to develop players? Thirdly, do they develop players, not just 16, 17, 18 year olds, but players later in their career as well?

"And finally, are they able to bring in young players and trust young players from an academy, and integrate them into a first team squad. So if those were the four measures, and then you set various other measures under each of those four pillars to allow you to assess coaching talent across Europe, Johannes sat very, very highly on the list because of the work he was doing at Nordsjælland."

- Our full interview with Gregg Broughton can be watched in full above or read by clicking here