Steve McClaren has been appointed head of football at Rotherham United, the club have confirmed. The role is a new one at New York Stadium, created as Rotherham look to restructure their football operations following relegation to League Two.
The appointment brings a figure of considerable experience into a club that must now rebuild at the fourth tier of English football. McClaren managed the England national side between 2006 and 2007 and has held senior roles at club level across England and Europe in the decades since, giving him a breadth of football knowledge that Rotherham's board will hope translates into meaningful oversight of their football department.
A head of football role sits above the dugout in the club's structure, typically carrying responsibility for recruitment strategy, academy alignment, and the broader football vision rather than day-to-day training and selection. Whether McClaren will work alongside an existing or incoming first-team manager, or what authority the role carries in practice, has not been confirmed at this stage.
Rotherham's relegation to League Two ends a period in which the club oscillated between the Championship and League One, earning a reputation for resilience and organisation under a tight budget. The drop to the fourth tier represents a more serious reset, and the creation of a senior football operations role suggests the board is approaching that reset with structural intent rather than short-term fixes.
McClaren's remit and the club's plans for the first-team management position are expected to become clearer in the coming weeks, as Rotherham begin preparing for a League Two campaign.