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Departing sporting director Julian Ward is moving to at the end of the season. Ward, 41, announced in November he would be leaving Anfield at the end of the season just a few months after replacing the highly-successful Michael Edwards in the transfer hot seat. Ahead of his departure, he has agreed to help rebuild after the departure of manager and several top players last summer. Ward will officially start work on July 1 after fresh talks with chief executive Edwin van der Sar finally brought a breakthrough over financial terms, says the . Van der Sar was instructed by the Dutch club's board to reopen negotiations after failing with his first approach.

Ward has a strong network of contacts in South America and also in Portugal, where he once scouted for . Ward will become s first foreign sporting director, although 38 of the club's 50 managers between 1915 and 1965 were English.