Just one day after the cup upset against Bundesliga club FC Augsburg, VfL Bochum has announced a new appointment.

As announced, VfL Bochum is restructuring its sports department and has signed Markus Brunnschneider. The 35-year-old comes to Castroper Straße from league rivals Holstein Kiel.

He was most recently Head of Technical Scouting & Recruiting there. He also worked as Head of Game and Tactics Analysis & Scouting at the International Football Institute. Brunnschneider will join the Blue and Whites on November 1, 2025, as Director of Scouting, Recruitment & Data, and in this role will also lead the team around head scout Babacar Wane, among other things. In addition to the current directors Annike Krahn (Women & Girls) and Pablo Thiam (Talent Development), Brunnschneider will work closely with Simon Zoller in his new role (Performance License) and Jonas Schlevogt (Legal & Human Resources) to jointly drive forward the development of squad value management.

VfL has deliberately decided not to appoint a second managing director alongside Ilja Kaenzig, thereby moving away from a person-based structure towards a modern, professionally organized sports management system.

The approach is not to limit responsibility to one person, but to distribute clear areas of responsibility among experts and to work in a more communicative manner. Roles are assigned according to clear responsibilities with measurable impact. The flatter hierarchy is intended to improve and simplify processes and ensure that decisions are made on the basis of specialist expertise and internal rather than external impact. After reaching the DFB Cup round of 16, VfL Bochum will continue its 2nd Bundesliga campaign this weekend. On Sunday, 1. FC Magdeburg will visit Castroper Straße.