Minnesota United's manager for next season is still to be determined, but the team is zeroing in on support staff to help sporting director Manny Lagos prepare for the team's first campaign in MLS.
Multiple sources have told ESPN FC that current D.C. United under-23 manager Amos Magee is the leading candidate to be Minnesota United's director of player personnel, and barring a last minute snag he will be hired by the team.
His primary responsibility will be to provide guidance to Lagos on MLS players as the team tries to build its roster through the expansion draft and other player acquisition mechanisms.
Other candidates include New England Revolution assistant Tom Soehn -- who is also on the preliminary shortlist for the head coaching position -- and Real Salt Lake assistant and former Ft. Lauderdale Strikers manager Daryl Shore.
Magee and Lagos are longtime friends and played together for five seasons with the second-tier Minnesota Thunder, one of the forerunners of Minnesota United. Staring in 2006, Lagos and Magee worked together with the Thunder when Lagos was the team's director of soccer operations and Magee was the head coach.
Magee resigned that position in 2008, and later took up a director of player development role with the Portland Timbers when they were still operating in the second tier league known as USL-1. Magee later served as head coach of the Timbers' reserve team from 2011-13 when the club moved to MLS. He has been with D.C. United since 2014, where he has also served as an assistant with the first team.
As a player, Magee played for the Thunder from 1992-2003, and was the team's all-time leading scorer with 64 goals. He was inducted into the USL Hall of Fame in 2008.
During the latter portion of that period he had two loan stints with MLS teams, playing for the Tampa Bay Mutiny in 2000 and with the Chicago Fire from 2001-02.