Corey Wray doesn’t have a lot of downtime. But in the brief moments when St. Louis City’s new sporting director isn’t occupied with ushering in the rebirth of an entire club, you might find him at home making pizza.
“There’s a website that you type in the amount or weight and it gives me the right hydration,” Wray said, recounting his dough-making method that achieves just the right mixture of flour and water. The Canadian is currently working on perfecting his Neapolitan style and is a proponent of pineapple as a topping — “definitely in controversial fashion and I’m okay with that.”
Even when he’s in the kitchen, Wray can’t turn off the part of his brain that’s helped qualify him to lead St. Louis’ front office: the part that’s fixated on installing clear, definable processes.
“Without some formal processes, the outcomes can be super unclear to me,” Wray told Backheeled.
Hired as St. Louis City’s second-ever sporting director in November, Wray has been busy tweaking things internally and maneuvering in the transfer market. The Canadian’s mandate in the Midwest is simple: turn the club into a consistent winner.
While Wray is leading a front office for the first time in his career, outside of a short spell at the chaotic, family-run CF Montreal, he’s no stranger to winning. He was a key part of front offices for Toronto FC and the Columbus Crew when both clubs were at their best before making that pitstop in Montreal. Now settling into life in charge of St. Louis’ sporting department, Wray joined a club reeling after a pair of fallow years made the team’s West-topping 2023 campaign look more like a blip than a trend. In the midst of last season’s struggles, St. Louis City parted ways with their head coach and sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel.
