Max Eberl is back in the football business. He wants to celebrate success at RB Leipzig.
Dressed all in black, with a smile on his face, Max Eberl took his seat – and made it clear: “I have a lot, a lot of energy again.” Barely eleven months after his emotional departure from Borussia Mönchengladbach, he is back in the thick of the football circus as RB Leipzig’s managing director of sport and feels more than ready for it.
Because “a lot has happened” since his departure from the Bundesliga stage at the end of January, Eberl reported at his presentation on Friday. The break had been “an extremely interesting process”: “I had one of the best times of my life, even if it was very emotional.”
He had been worried “that I had broken with football”, Eberl said. But he quickly realised: “Football is what you want.” Watching amateur football with bratwurst and beer was something “he enjoyed a lot”, but the Bundesliga and international competitions he “didn’t follow that much”.
That has now changed – even earlier than expected. On 1 December, two weeks before his originally planned start date, the long-time sports director of the Foals had already taken up his work at the DFB Cup winners, where he also completed the management team around Florian Hopp and Johann Plenge following the departure of Oliver Mintzlaff to the Red Bull Group.
“The first few days were very intensive,” reported the 49-year-old: “It’s also a big step for me, I was at another location for 23 years.” Now he is “really looking forward to the new task”.
This had not yet been a thought in January, when Eberl had said goodbye to Gladbach in tears and psychologically exhausted. “At some point, the point had come when you were dead, when you were tired,” he mused: “It was a time when I had to stop once as a human being.”
The fact that he is now returning to the business in Leipzig, of all places, had caused resentment in the run-up, especially among Gladbach supporters. Eberl himself had also criticised his new employer in the past.
Nothing of that was to be heard on Friday – quite the opposite. Leipzig offers “unbelievable” opportunities and conditions: “These are things I dreamed of having in Gladbach at some point,” said Eberl. But there, too, there were structures that worked very well “and I will try to bring them here”.
The Gladbach chapter is “now closed” for him, emphasised Eberl, who wants to look ahead. The winter transfer window should be quiet, Eberl does not expect any major personnel changes.
This could change in the summer, as there is “extremely great interest” in goal-scorer Christopher Nkunku, while the likelihood of midfielder Konrad Laimer staying is “very low”.
However, this should not deter him from his goal of celebrating “the greatest possible success” with the club. With Bayern, they have “an almost overpowering opponent”. RB will meet them directly after the break on 20 January: “Maybe the first challenge will come then,” said Eberl.