The club is in the middle of a crisis without sporting leadership. The manager earned great merit at Borussia, bringing in talents such as Reus, Dante, Xhaka, Kramer and Kruse.
Max Eberl is leaving Borussia Mönchengladbach after 23 years. In the middle of the crisis, the club is left without leadership. Even if there is still no confirmation from the club, according to information from the sports information service, the farewell was agreed days ago. Already at the press conference before the cup game at Hannover 96, the sports director had seemed unusually nervous, answered in monosyllables and even called coach Adi Hütter “Dieter” twice. In Hanover, just like in the home game against Union Berlin, he was no longer on the bench, according to Borussia Eberl was “ill”. Private life is said to have played a role in the farewell.
Eberl had extended his contract early in December 2020 until 2026 and then took a well-noticed break. According to the broadcaster Sky, the search for a successor is already underway within the club. If the resignation is to take place exactly, it is still open. This is possible in the next few days or at the latest at the end of the season, wrote Sky Die image-Zeitung reported that Eberl Gladbach boss Rolf Königs should have asked for a release from the post of sports director on January 31st. The 80-year-old is said to have rejected that.
For Borussia, the separation comes at an inopportune time: After 20 games this season, Gladbach Borussia is only in twelfth place under Hütter. With 20 points, the club is only two points ahead of the relegation rank. Due to the massive sporting crisis, Eberl also came under criticism. Before the season, he had brought Hütter from Eintracht Frankfurt for 7.5 million euros to succeed Marco Rose, whose early departure from Gladbach to Borussia Dortmund had already caused discord.
Meanwhile, Eberl’s services to the club are just as undisputed. Since the relegation in 2011, Borussia has always landed in a single-digit place in the table for ten years in a row – otherwise only Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have managed that. During this time, the traditional club has reached the Champions League three times and the Europa League three times.
Eberl came to the foals as a professional at the beginning of 1999. From 2004 he worked as a youth coordinator, in 2008 he was promoted to sports director. With talent, but also first-class transfers, Eberl rebuilt Borussia. The purchase of Marco Reus from the then second division club Rot Weiss Ahlen is still considered a great success. Other top purchases were Dante, Granit Xhaka, Christoph Kramer and Max Kruse. No wonder that Bayern Munich, Eberl’s sporting home, also asked in 2017. But the native of Lower Bavaria stayed on the Lower Rhine, where he was responsible for the external presentation almost as a one-man show, which also cost energy. “At some point,” Eberl kept saying, “I’d like to win a title with Borussia Mönchengladbach,” something “tinny.” This goal now remains unfulfilled.
In November he had in the sports picture declares that a return to Bayern cannot be ruled out. It is “conceivable that I will work as a youth scout at FC Bayern and end my career in football at Tegernsee,” said Eberl. He already owns a house on Tegernsee.