Faltering Bayern Munich have confirmed in an announcement that former Borussia Mönchengladbach and RB Leipzig sporting director Max Eberl will take over because the board member for sport in a boardroom shakeup. He has signed on till June 2027.
Media experiences say Bayern are set to pay a compensation charge of €4.5 million to Leipzig, the place he remained below contract regardless of being relieved of his duties final September.
In hindsight, it is a transfer that appears to have been coming for fairly a while.
“I spent my entire childhood and youth at FC Bayern and in Munich, so it’s something special for me to return in a new role to the club where it all began,” Eberl defined. “Together with everyone here, I want to do everything I can to ensure that FC Bayern continues to be successful in the future and brings joy to its fans.”
Even years earlier than he stepped down as managing director of sport at Mönchengladbach in early 2022, Eberl’s identify appeared to return up within the media every time a change within the hierarchy was within the air at his boyhood membership, Bayern. However, in public, he would constantly profess his loyalty to the membership the place the previous defender completed his Bundesliga taking part in profession. 2016 was a living proof.
“This is purely a media issue,” the then 42-year-old stated when requested by German broadcaster Sky about rumors of a attainable transfer to Bavaria.
“Football doesn’t work in the subjunctive. I’m focused here and now. For me, that’s Borussia Mönchengladbach.”
On the opposite hand, although, he conceded that in soccer, one may “never rule out what might happen” sooner or later and that he was “flattered” to be talked about in the identical sentence with Bayern.
Homecoming three a long time within the making
By then, Eberl had taken a membership that had change into a perennial relegation candidate, often dropping down into Bundesliga 2, right into a perennial candidate for Europe. That included their first look within the Champions League (in its present format) in 2015. It was this success that can have drawn the eye of Bayern’s board, however till now, nothing had come of it.
Now, although, will probably be very a lot a homecoming for the 50-year-old, who made his debut as a participant within the Bundesliga for Bayern after taking part in all of his youth soccer on the membership.
That match, a 3-2 defeat in Stuttgart in 1991, could be Eberl’s final within the Bundesliga for Bayern. However, he did go on to make over 200 appearances, cut up virtually evenly between the Bundesliga and the second division for Bochum (1994 to 1997), Greuther Fürth (1997 to 1998) and Mönchengladbach (1998 to 2005).
Shaping a brand new period of success
At Gladbach, he would keep after hanging up his boots, quickly climbing up the administration ladder. He first joined the entrance workplace as a youth coordinator on the membership in 2005 earlier than gaining promotion to sporting director three years later. In 2010 he rose to the put up of managing director of sport.
It was on this place that he would actually put his stamp on the membership. With Gladbach at risk of relegation in early 2011, Eberl changed head coach Michael Frontzeck with then-little-known Swiss coach Lucien Favre, who managed to avoid wasting the membership from the drop by ending sixteenth and beating Bochum within the 2010-11 relegation playoff.
This marked the start of Gladbach’s most profitable period because the legendary “Foals” of the Seventies (5 Bundesliga titles, a German Cup and two UEFA Cups). In addition to Champions League qualification in 2015, the staff made two appearances within the Europa League.
It was additionally throughout this period that Eberl oversaw the signings of a variety of kids who would go on to worldwide stardom, together with Germany goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen, who moved to Barcelona in 2014, and Switzerland midfielder Granit Xhaka, who returned to the Bundesliga with Leverkusen final 12 months following a number of campaigns at Arsenal.
However, the Eberl period got here to an abrupt finish in January 2022. With the ink on a contract extension till 2026 hardly dry, Eberl introduced that he was stepping down from his put up at Gladbach as a consequence of exhaustion.
“I have to draw a line. I have to get out. I have to take care of the human being,” a tearful Eberl stated.
Formally, his contract in Mönchengladbach was terminated in September 2022.
Short-lived stint in Leipzig
In December 2022, although, in a transfer that stunned many, Eberl was again, not at a venerable previous membership reminiscent of Gladbach however at relative newcomers RB Leipzig, reviled by followers who object to what they see as a single concern on this case Red Bull, bankrolling Bundesliga success. There, he was reunited with head coach Marco Rose, who he had dropped at Gladbach in 2019. Four years later, Rose – with Eberl as his managing director, led RB Leipzig to German Cup glory.
However, Eberl’s keep at RB, the place he had signed a contract till 2026, was reduce quick just a few months later. In September, shortly earlier than RB Leipzig have been to face Bayern, the membership’s administration introduced that it was parting methods with its managing director of sport.
The motive RB Leipzig’s administration gave for the choice was a “lack of commitment” to the membership. This got here amid media hypothesis that he had secretly been in talks with Bayern, who had been with no board member for sport since sacking Hasan Salihamidzic final May.
Christoph Freund had been introduced in as sporting director but the Bavarians wished a football-savvy government above him on the board too. But Bayern being behind Eberl leaving Leipzig was categorically dominated out by the membership’s president, Herbert Hainer.
“The exit of Max Eberl from RB Leipzig has absolutely nothing to do with Bayern Munich,” he stated.
Loads can change within the area of 4 months.
Edited by Mark Meadows