DFB Cup winner RB Leipzig is still looking for a first sense of achievement in the new season and has been looking for a new sports director for much longer. This could be found with the former Glabach boss Max Eberl. His move would trigger a mean earthquake in Leipzig and the league.
RB Leipzig is said to be about to sign a new sporting director. The club, which was launched by an Austrian marketing giant, has had no sporting leadership since Markus Krösche left Eintracht Frankfurt at the end of April 2021. At the moment, the chairman of the board, Oliver Mintzlaff, is also in charge of the sporting fortunes of the club. He had repeatedly announced a 1A solution for the vacant post, but then withdrew it.
The names of Mario Gomez, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Arsène Wenger, Thierry Henry or former Chelsea manager Marina Granovskaja have all been rumoured. But now it could be the former Gladbach boss Max Eberl. A name that has stubbornly stuck for a long time. However, he is still under contract on the Lower Rhine until 2026 and, according to “Bild”, should cost a record fee of ten million euros.
An Eberl change to RB would be of a certain explosive nature. Eberl said goodbye to Borussia Mönchengladbach in January after more than 20 years in various positions at an emotional press conference. "I'm broken, exhausted and can't work anymore," Eberl explained. "That's why I spoke to the club about ending my 23 years here. I'm ending what my life was."
But even then there were rumors that Eberl could be flirting with a move to RB Leipzig in the long term. What was also noted: Borussia Mönchengladbach did not dissolve Eberl's contract. And even if the rumors about a Leipzig change were soon rejected in all sharpness and with reference to the press conference, they popped up again these days.
The LVZ reporter Guido Schäfer, who is usually very well networked in Leipzig, put it this way these days: "A ship will come. With Max Eberl on board. That will happen less before the game at Union Berlin." Mintzlaff didn't want to rule that out at the weekend either. “We are not ruling out anything today. We will present the solution promptly, I can say that in this case,” he said on Sky at the weekend.
A commitment from Eberl would also increase the pressure on coach Domenico Tedesco. The 2022 DFB Cup winner is still without a win after the first three competitive games of the new season. The spectacular and rather flattering 3:5 in the Supercup against Bayern Munich was followed by two sobering draws against the middle-class teams VfB Stuttgart and 1. FC Köln. With two points from two games, Leipzig are already chasing the top teams from Munich and Dortmund.
Oliver Mintzlaff, who has been the sole ruler in Leipzig since Markus Krösche left, was dissatisfied after the draw against the Baumgart team. "Of course it's a crappy start with two points from two games, we had imagined it quite differently," he said after the 2-2 draw on Saturday. "We want to get back into the Champions League, and of course you have to score points from the first matchday. And now the gap to the top is four points."
The cup winner had done everything in the summer to prevent a false start like last season. At that time, coach Jesse Marsch was fired in early December after a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Union Berlin. Shortly before the dismissal, Mintzlaff spoke of a "desolate performance" and a "crappy game" in the Alte Försterei, using similar words as now after the 2-2 win against Cologne. Again, the upcoming guest appearance at Union could even be trend-setting for the rest of the season.
Sport1 is already speculating about replacing Tedesco, who was only sold this weekend by the English-speaking "The Athletic" as the next big thing in German football. But despite what can be described as a successful summer of transfers with the extension of the contract with "Footballer of the Year" Christoph Nkunku and the notable commitments of Timo Werner, David Raum and Xaver Schlager, the former Schalke coach has not yet managed to put a powerful team on the pitch bring to. And Mintzlaff's patience seems finite.
According to Sport1, instead of Tedesco, former BVB coach Marco Rose could soon be on the sidelines. Born in Leipzig, he was released in Dortmund after a year. In the Westfalenstadion he was mostly unable to continue his happy time at Borussia Mönchengladbach.
He experienced this great time together with Max Eberl, who stuck with the coach even after the announcement of the change to the big Borussia. Something that increased the pressure on Eberl and certainly made a small contribution to his health-related retirement in January 2022. Now, after two years on the Lower Rhine, there could be a reunion on Cottaweg next to the Elster basin. It's still speculation.
"The person is already being insulted on social media, although they have not yet expressed themselves," Eberl said when he said goodbye in Gladbach and it can be assumed that this time it will be no different. The Bundesliga club RB Leipzig remains a red rag for too many fans because of its character. Few of the Foals' fans will really forgive him for a change there. No matter what words of explanation the 48-year-old would find.
