Stable smell is a very honorable term at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Ever since a young Borussia team successfully galloped through the football world in the 1970s, the players of this club have been called “colts”. The football boarding school at Borussia is officially called Fohlenstall.
Since Borussia’s exhausted sports director Max Eberl surprisingly resigned in an emotional press conference three weeks ago, the industry has been puzzled as to who can adequately replace a man with so much stable smell. The 48-year-old was a player in Mönchengladbach for six years, youth coordinator for four years and sports director for 13 years.
Borussia presented their new sports director on Tuesday, and he actually has nine more years of stable odor than Eberl with his 23 years of service. Roland Virkus, 55, who was born in Mönchengladbach, watched Borussia games on the Bökelberg as a fan, began working in the club in 1990 as a coach for various youth teams, later became head of the football boarding school and in 2008 Eberl’s successor as youth coordinator. On Tuesday, Virkus also succeeded him in the position of sporting director. So that’s not a big surprise.
This internal solution is a small surprise, however, because Eberl has developed his own position into a widely attractive position within 13 years. Wolfsburg’s Jörg Schmadtke, Bielefeld’s Samir Arabi, Schalke’s Rouven Schröder and most recently even the technical director of the French Football Association, the former Gladbach player Hubert Fournier, were traded as Eberl’s successors. But not all of them will. Borussia favors internal candidates, even if their qualifications are right. And in this case, apparently, it does.
Talents may now find their way into the Bundesliga team more quickly
“Many people have contributed to the successful path of the past few years,” says club president Rolf Königs, “we have a strong structure and a strong team and I am pleased that in Roland Virkus one of this team is continuing Max Eberl’s work.” Virkus has all the necessary qualifications for Vice President Rainer Bonhof: “Experience in managing a football company, in squad planning and in dealing with coaches, players and player advisors”. Virkus also has “a large network”.
However, Corona has curtailed Borussia’s economic opportunities. For the time being, Virkus will hardly have the options with which Eberl could get promising players and resell them lucratively. In this respect, it is not only possible that one or the other talent from the foal stable will soon have a chance in the Bundesliga team, but that this thought was also a decisive factor in the succession regulation.