Wounded Bayern Munich poised to appoint Max Eberl to oversee shakeup
Mon, Feb 26, 2024
Soccer News (AP)
BERLIN (AP) - Stung by the prospect of its first season without a major trophy for 12 years, Bayern Munich looks set to appoint Max Eberl to oversee a major shakeup.
The Bavarian powerhouse is expected to confirm Eberl as its new sporting director this week. He will be charged with rejuvenating a team that has lost its aura of dominance and no longer demonstrates the assured belief it used to as the best in Germany.
Eberl enjoyed success as sporting director at Borussia Monchengladbach from 2008 until he quit abruptly citing burnout in January 2022. He joined Leipzig in the same role eight months later but was fired last September for "his failure to commit to the club."
At Leipzig, Eberl led a rebuild that saw established players like Josko Gvardiol and Dominik Szoboszlai depart for big sums, while young talents like Loïs Openda and Paris Saint-Germain loanee Xavi Simons arrived to star this season.
Eberl's alleged lack of commitment to Leipzig likely had to do with the speculation linking him with Bayern, where the former right-back's work in a managerial capacity at Gladbach had long been admired.
Eberl was already a target for Bayern before it appointed Hasan Salihamidzic as sporting director in 2017.
Salihamidzic was fired hours after Bayern clinched the league title last season, along with chief executive Oliver Kahn, as both paid the price for the problems that Eberl will now be expected to address.
Bayern only won the Bundesliga last season because Borussia Dortmund squandered its chance on the final day. The decision to axe Kahn and Salihamidzic had been taken earlier, after a season in which the team's decline had been plain to see.
Former chief financial officer Jan-Christian Dreesen took over as CEO and Bayern hired former Salzburg sporting director Christoph Freund to take over from Salihamidzic, though he didn't start officially until Sept. 1, and wasn't involved in the summer transfer business.
Eberl and Freund will be expected to work together, with a priority being the hiring of a new coach following Bayern's decision not to continue with Thomas Tuchel next season after the team lost three games in a row.
Tuchel said Friday he wasn't the "only problem" at Bayern and his employers were unable to contradict him over the weekend.
"If FC Bayern loses three times in a row, then we all have to question ourselves, the team, the coach, we in management, we do it as well, it's not in question at all," Bayern president Herbert Hainer said Saturday. "But you will see, we will draw the right analysis and conclusions and do the right thing."
Asked why Bayern had worked its way through three highly regarded German coaches in Tuchel, Julian Nagelsmann and Hansi Flick since 2021, Hainer replied that the demands at Bayern were very high and there was constant pressure to do well.
"But I believe that at the end of the day, the formula for success at FC Bayern is that we are never satisfied with where we are, and then we continue to move forward," Hainer said.
Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso - a former Bayern player - is the favorite as Tuchel's replacement, though former Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane and Stuttgart's Sebastian Hoeneß have also been linked. The latter is the nephew of Bayern's honorary president Uli Hoeneß and has led Stuttgart to third place in the Bundesliga after saving it from relegation last season.
Hainer placed the onus on the new coach for success by saying the Bayern squad is "not un-coachable."
Eberl will be under pressure from the start.
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