FC Bayern Munich
“Welcome home, Max”: Eberl confirms his title ambitions
Max Eberl is the new sports director of FC Bayern Munich. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
Max Eberl has been working on his new project at FC Bayern for a long time. A lot of work awaits the Munich sports director. Eberl is inheriting a “great inheritance”.
The new Munich sports director Max Eberl (50) has the title chances FC Bayern are far from being written off this season. “I don’t want to give up this season,” Eberl announced during his introduction. The aim is to “get the best out of the season.”
The Munich team are currently eight points behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga. In the Champions League, FC Bayern has to make up for a 0-1 defeat against Lazio Rome in the round of 16. The last three months of the season are about “maybe even winning titles,” said Eberl, who most recently worked as sporting director at RB Leipzig.
Eberl will officially start as Munich’s new sports director from March 1st. He has signed a contract until June 30, 2027. “Welcome home, Max,” said Munich CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen to Eberl, who left the club as a player in 1994 and then moved to VfL Bochum. He later made a career as an official at Borussia Mönchengladbach and briefly in Leipzig. “I’m taking on a great inheritance,” admitted Eberl when he was introduced in Munich.
According to Supervisory Board Chairman Herbert Hainer, the former defender was “our number one priority” when his separation from Leipzig became public, as the successor to Hasan Salihamidzic, who was released in May 2023. According to Eberl, the first contact with Hainer was made last November.
Eberl: “We want to find a coach who suits Bayern Munich”
Eberl remained tight-lipped about the coaching candidates being traded at FC Bayern from next summer. With Xabi Alonso from Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen, who is currently considered the favorite, he recalled a “very interesting conversation” from three years ago. At the time, Xabi Alonso was the coach of Real Sociedad’s second team in Spain and Eberl’s candidate as the future coach in Mönchengladbach. “It’s a touch too early for me,” replied Xabi Alonso Eberl. However, the conversation from back then does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about today, noted Eberl.
“It should be German or English”
The 50-year-old has to find a successor in Munich for Thomas Tuchel, who is leaving this summer a year before his contract actually ends in Munich. “We want to find a coach who suits Bayern Munich, who meets their requirements,” emphasized the new Bayern official.
Regarding the future coach’s language skills, Eberl said: “It should be German or English, but French is a bit thin for me. That’s also a criterion, but not an exclusion criterion. I don’t want to limit myself too much.” The French football legend Zinédine Zidane is also considered a possible coaching candidate.
Both the search for a coach and the work on the new squad structure were “not rocket science,” assured Eberl. “Of course the task list is very big, but I’m not afraid.” He emphasized: “I’m not a savior, I’m a guy who wants to get involved.”
We also talk to Kimmich
Among other things, Eberl also has to deal with the dissatisfied national player Joshua Kimmich, whose contract expires in the summer of 2025. There is no need to talk about him, assured the new Munich sports director.
“He has made an incredible journey, he has mentality and quality,” said Eberl, who is looking forward to discussions with the midfielder. But at the same time everyone has to show how important FC Bayern is to them.
Eberl continues to exchange ideas with the psychologist
Eberl continues to seek advice from an expert regarding his health-related withdrawal from Borussia Mönchengladbach at the beginning of 2022. “I have a psychologist who I always have with me, but thank God I don’t need him as often as I did back then,” he said. The time back then allowed him to “grow extremely and become strong as a person. I’m not worried because I know what I’m getting myself into.”
Eberl announced his retirement as sports director in Mönchengladbach at the end of January 2022. “Because I’m just exhausted, because I’m just tired, because I no longer have the strength to do this job, the way this job and this club needs it,” he explained at the time.
Eberl now recalled that he had sacrificed himself “to the point of self-sacrifice” for the club. Afterwards he “very consciously took himself out” and that was “extremely good” for him. In December 2022, Eberl became sports director at RB Leipzig after a long break. He had to leave there around nine months later. “The lack of commitment to the club prompted us to make this decision,” the Leipzig team said at the time.
“I’m really keen,” assured Eberl, who had already been linked to FC Bayern during his time in Leipzig. “I’m not afraid, but I have people around me who accompany me and support me.”