Mauricio Culebro Arrives To Help Build Atlanta’s Next Soccer Era

AMB Sports and Entertainment’s new President of Soccer arrives with experience at Tigres, Club América, and the Mexican federation, plus a résumé that spans both the men’s and women’s game.

There are hires that fill a role, and there are hires that reveal an ambition.

Mauricio Culebro’s arrival in Atlanta feels like the second kind.

(photo: Sofia Cupertino for the SDH Network)

AMB Sports and Entertainment named Culebro its President of Soccer on Wednesday, placing him over both Atlanta United and the launch of NWSL Atlanta in 2028. That is the first thing to understand about the magnitude of this move. This is not a single-club hire made to tidy up an org chart. Following what Arthur M. Blank described as an extensive global search, this is a decision about what soccer inside AMBSE is supposed to become over the next several years.

The title tells part of the story. The scope tells the rest.

Culebro will oversee all aspects of Atlanta United and NWSL Atlanta, report directly to AMBSE CEO Rich McKay, and serve as the organization’s primary liaison with U.S. Soccer. He will also work across the ongoing buildout of the NWSL side, including leadership, staffing, the training ground, and matchday-specific modifications at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Atlanta did not simply hire someone to guide one team. It hired someone to help shape an entire soccer ecosystem.

That scope is also visible in what will not change. Atlanta United Chief Soccer Officer and Sporting Director Chris Henderson, Senior Vice President of Strategy Dimitrios Efstathiou, and Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer Sarah Kate Noftsinger will remain in their roles and now report directly to Culebro. This is not a reset button. It is a new layer of soccer leadership over an existing structure.

For an Atlanta audience that may not follow Liga MX closely, the easiest way to understand Culebro is through the path he took to get here.

He has spent more than 22 years in elite club and federation environments, rising from intern to the presidency of two of the biggest clubs in Mexico and serving as Chief Operating Officer of the Mexican Football Federation. Before coming to Atlanta, he spent five years as president of Tigres UANL, overseeing both the men’s and women’s sides. Before that, he worked at the federation level in Mexico’s operational planning for multiple host cities ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Before that came more than 15 years at Club América in senior roles that included president, operations vice president, operations director, and general coordinator.

That matters because this does not read like a ceremonial appointment.

This feels less like a symbolic hire and more like a bet on substance.

There is a difference between someone who knows how to talk about a club and someone who has spent years learning how clubs actually function. Culebro’s career was built in the unglamorous but essential parts of the sport, the work that lives underneath trophies and headlines. It is one thing to celebrate a title. It is another to understand the machinery, standards, and discipline required to build an institution that can keep chasing them. That kind of background becomes especially important when the assignment is this broad.

And the résumé is not only broad. It is productive. During his five years at Tigres, the club won Liga MX, Campeón de Campeones, and Campeones Cup titles on the men’s side, along with four Liga MX Femenil titles and three Campeón de Campeones Femenil titles. Just as important, Tigres consistently finished in the top five on both the men’s and women’s sides while doubling commercial revenue. That blend of competitive success and institutional growth helps explain why Blank described Culebro as an outstanding fit for this role.

The women’s side is one of the biggest reasons this hire stands out.

Too often, expansion conversation around women’s soccer gets reduced to branding, hype, and launch language. This move carries a deeper signal than that. Culebro arrives from Tigres with direct leadership experience over one of the strongest women’s programs in the region, and AMBSE’s announcement places that fact front and center. During his tenure, Tigres won major honors across both the men’s and women’s programs, and the release notes that across his time at Tigres and Club América, he became the only president in Mexico to win men’s and women’s league championships with two different clubs.

That is not a secondary detail. It is one of the clearest ways to understand why Atlanta chose him.

NWSL Atlanta is not being introduced as a side project. It is being launched with real scale, real resources, and real expectations. AMBSE has already announced plans for a nearly 33-acre Marietta training site with an approximately 38,000-square-foot facility, four full fields, two half-pitches, and an investment of more than $100 million. That project needs leadership that understands the women’s side as a pillar of the institution from the beginning. Culebro’s résumé says he has already lived inside that kind of expectation.

The release also makes clear that this job is not simply about launching a new team. It is about the future, but it is also about restoring a standard at Atlanta United.

“This is an exciting day as we welcome Mauricio to Atlanta and our family of businesses,” said Blank. “As we progressed through the search process, Mauricio’s impressive experience and clear vision to elevate our clubs made him an outstanding fit to lead Atlanta United and NWSL Atlanta 2028. While he may be new to MLS and the NWSL, Mauricio is not new to building and operating successful global soccer clubs, and I am fully confident in his ability to help return Atlanta United to the level our fans deserve, while leading the launch of our NWSL club. I would also like to thank our search committee and Sportsology Group who dedicated their time, effort and expertise throughout this extensive process.”

And then there is the part of this hire that may matter most in a city like Atlanta: the posture behind it.

For all the scale on his résumé, Culebro comes across less like a would-be main character and more like a steward. In a March 2025 interview in Monterrey, he described himself as “one more” among the supporters, someone who feels deeply identified with what they live and feel, even while carrying responsibilities that make his role different. He also spoke about success in terms of what can be given back to a city and a fan base, not what can be claimed for himself.

That idea lands with force here because Atlanta soccer is entering a moment that asks for more than management.

Atlanta United still carries the weight of what it has been and what its supporters know it can be. NWSL Atlanta is still a promise waiting to become a living, breathing club with habits, standards, rituals, and identity. Those are different realities, but they require the same thing from leadership: someone who understands that clubs are not merely administered. They are held in trust.

That is what makes this hire feel larger than a title.

Yes, Culebro brings serious credentials from Tigres, Club América, and the Mexican federation. Yes, he has operated inside men’s and women’s championship environments. Yes, he has worked at a level where expectations are permanent and pressure is part of the air. But what gives this move its resonance in Atlanta is the combination of résumé and temperament, of institutional weight and what looks like institutional humility.

Culebro’s own statement on arrival fits that frame. It is the language of growth, but also of stewardship.

“It is an honor to join AMBSE’s highly successful leadership team and become part of an organization with such a strong culture and foundation already in place,” said Culebro. “I am excited to put my experience, passion and commitment at the service of Atlanta United and NWSL Atlanta 2028, working alongside a great team to build long term projects our fans can feel proud of — teams that truly represent the passion, energy and ambition of this city.”

AMBSE did not simply make a recognizable hire from outside MLS. It made a statement about the scale of the soccer project it wants to build, and about the kind of person it believes should help lead it.

Mauricio Culebro arrives in Atlanta with a long track record and a broad mandate. More importantly, he arrives with the kind of job that asks for more than authority. It asks for stewardship.