Edu Joins Northampton Town as Senior Advisor Under Brazilian Ownership
Northampton Town’s new era under Brazilian control now has a familiar Premier League figure attached to it. Former Arsenal midfielder and ex-Gunners director of football Edu has agreed to act as a senior advisor to the club’s new owners, adding heavyweight experience to a League Two survival fight.
The 23rd-placed Cobblers, taken over last month by a Brazilian consortium fronted by former AC Milan and Chelsea forward Alexandre Pato, have turned to Edu for guidance on the game’s bigger strategic calls. This is not a hands-on, touchline role. It is influence, not interference.
Edu left his position as Nottingham Forest’s global head of football in September and has since joined the board of directors at Bulgarian top-flight side Levski Sofia. That connection is no coincidence. Levski are owned by London-based investment firm Gemcorp Capital, an investor in Sports Alpha Capital – the group that has become Northampton’s majority shareholder.
At an open forum with supporters, Cobblers co-chairman Joao Xavier outlined how Edu will fit into the picture. He described him as a sounding board, someone to call on when the club needs clarity on “sporting questions” rather than a permanent presence in the building.
Xavier explained that his relationship with Edu began during the Brazilian’s time at Forest, when he leaned on him to better understand the nuances of English football. That informal mentorship has now evolved into a formal advisory role that stretches across projects: Edu advises for one of the ownership’s partners, works with Levski Sofia, and will now also lend his expertise to Northampton.
Crucially, Xavier moved quickly to address one of the modern game’s touchiest subjects. Despite the shared investors and Edu’s overlapping responsibilities, he insisted Northampton will not be folded into a wider multi-club network.
“The club will never be part of a multi-club ownership – no other club is part of our project,” he told fans, drawing a firm line between strategic alliances and shared control.
So Northampton, marooned near the bottom of League Two, now find themselves with a Champions League winner and seasoned football executive on the other end of the phone when big decisions land on the table. How they use that counsel – and how quickly it translates into smart recruitment and clearer direction – will help define whether this Brazilian-backed project stabilises a struggling club or merely brushes past it.
