Get kicked out before things get ugly
RBL no longer wants to afford Bayern ghost Eberl
By Tobias Nordmann and Stephan Uersfeld
September 29, 2023, 8:49 p.m
That didn’t happen that way either. With an ice-cold message, RB Leipzig dismissed Max Eberl, the most powerful man in the club, the day before the groundbreaking game against FC Bayern. They’ve obviously had enough of the ghost they brought into the club a year ago.
RB Leipzig has long since become too big to simply shrug its shoulders when senior staff do not clearly commit to the club. It is therefore only logical that the big and bigger-thinking Bundesliga soccer team throws Max Eberl out completely unexpectedly this Friday afternoon. The accompanying statement was a real kick in the ass. “The lack of commitment to the club has led us to make this decision,” the Leipzig team wrote in a brief statement and wished him “all the best” for the future. Where this could be has been repeatedly discussed in the rumor mill in recent weeks.
Because there were rumors again, just before the top Bundesliga game between the Saxons, who had made a strong start, against the record champions (Saturday, 6:30 p.m.) that the 50-year-old could move to his dream club, FC Bayern. And very soon. It was said that this could happen sometime in the spring. So that the big Munich season 2024/2025 can be planned. Then, as is well known, the great disgrace of the lost “Finale at home” in 2012 should be erased. In early summer 2025, the biggest final in European football will once again take place in the Allianz Arena.
Eberl did not deny the rumors. Or not enough. He simply referred to his current contract. That wasn’t enough for RB. Too little identification. So what started with a big bang less than a year ago ends with a big bang. The fact that Eberl left his former club Borussia Mönchengladbach for a long time for health reasons and then rushed off to the hated system rival after his recovery is not a good thing on the Lower Rhine. Even if the then Leipzig managing director Oliver Mintzlaff transferred 2.5 million euros to the Gladbacher account.
Bayern, always Bayern
There was a lot of unpleasant music playing. Eberl only faced hostility again from Gladbach supporters last weekend. They showed him as a greedy pig. In Leipzig, with Mintzlaff’s departure to Red Bull, he grew into the club’s most powerful man. But obviously he never really got there.
Because FC Bayern stands above everything. The club that has been flirting with Eberl for years, but has always been in a liaison. But that changed this summer. Seconds before the surprising championship, the Munich team threw out the alpha animals Oliver Kahn (club boss) and Hasan Salihamidžić (sports director). The club replaced the Titan with Jan-Christian Dreesen. The Bosnian’s post remains vacant to this day. A new sports director, Christoph Freund, has been appointed, but the level above is fallow – and is now ready for Eberl?
At the Supercup, Eberl was able to sit next to Bayern President Hainer.
(Photo: picture alliance/dpa)
The manager, who was once so successful in Gladbach, maintains a very close relationship with Uli Hoeneß, probably still the most powerful man on Säbener Strasse. It is a realistic scenario that the paths that were always close to each other but never came together may soon meet. Of course, it was the Bayern expert among the transfer journalists, Florian Plettenberg, who reported on the record champions’ happy surprise shortly after the expulsion. This wasn’t expected on Säbener Strasse, but now things should happen very quickly, wrote the Sky reporter on X, the platform that was still called Twitter on Eberl’s last day at work in Gladbach.
In terms of sport, Eberl can hardly be blamed for anything
This story doesn’t leave a strange aftertaste. Why did the rumors crack so loudly before the second duel of the season? Why was Eberl, who has known the business for years and knows about the impact of the single word, the spoken sentence, so vague? So unhappy? Why isn’t a potential deal completed more quietly? And what about the issue of loyalty and value of the applicable contract for an official? Open questions that allow for many scenarios with intent and powerful interests. From whatever side.
However, the relationship between Eberl and RB is said not to have been the best. According to several media reports, the 50-year-old struggled with the fact that he did not have enough power to make decisions in the sporting area. The club is said to have been annoyed that Eberl stayed in Munich (too) often with his girlfriend. How much of this was deliberately launched? Maybe the timing is right. As of now, the Leipzig team has successfully restructured their squad. The top departures Christopher Nkunku, Josko Gvardiol and Dominik Szoboszlai were compensated at the highest level with Luis Openda and Benjamin Sesko, with Castello Lukeba and, above all, prodigy Xavi Simons.
Leipzig comes before history
Rouven Schröder is now taking over from someone who left FC Schalke 04 for personal reasons in October 2022 and only joined Leipzig in April. He should now continue Eberl’s sporting work. At least the 47-year-old’s playing career rules out an early departure to another big club. Eberl started his football career at FC Bayern Munich, which then led him to Gladbach in 1999. Schröder from Arnsberg played for VfL Bochum, MSV Duisburg, VfB Lübeck and NTSV Strand 08, never for a really big club.
Leipzig, on the other hand, suddenly came before history. Instead of dwelling on the rumors for weeks, maybe even months, they drew a line under the Eberl case. There is always noise before a top game anyway, and there is always deafening noise from the speakers in the Leipzig stadium – when a game is won. The people of Leipzig can now concentrate on that, and not on Eberl. Bayern should deal with Eberl. RB Leipzig has become too big for these kinds of rumors. You know that from Julian Nagelsmann, Dayot Upamecano, Marcel Sabitzer and Konrad Laimer. It’s a game they don’t want to play anymore.