The Philadelphia Union have promoted Paul Killian to Academy Director, elevating a figure who has spent recent years building out the club’s player development machinery. The move puts Killian in charge of the entire academy operation, overseeing how the Union identify and advance young talent through their pipeline.
Killian steps up from his previous post as Head of Scouting, Academy, and Professional Development, a role in which he ran scouting and academy operations and sharpened the club’s approach to finding and growing players. Sporting Director Jon Scheer framed the promotion as a natural next step, calling Killian “the right person to lead the next phase of our academy” and pointing to his background in talent identification and coaching.
His resume outside the Union runs deep. Killian arrived after a stint as an assistant coach at UCLA, where the program captured the 2023 PAC-12 Championship. Before that he spent close to five years at the U.S. Naval Academy as associate head coach, leaning heavily into recruiting and development work, and he opened his coaching career with Baltimore Armour in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy.
He was a goalkeeper before he was a coach. At Stevens Institute of Technology, Killian started for three seasons from 2011 to 2013 and put together a 50-8-3 record with 25 shutouts, earning First Team All-American recognition and National Goalkeeper of the Year honors along the way.
The academy he now leads has become one of the most productive development pipelines in Major League Soccer, turning out Homegrown players and professionals who have gone on to MLS, MLS NEXT Pro, and clubs in Europe.
