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

As announced, VfL Bochum is restructuring its sports department and has signed Markus Brunnschneider for this purpose. The 35-year-old is joining the club on Castroper Straße from league rival Holstein Kiel.

There, he most recently served as “Head of Technical Scouting & Recruiting.” He also worked as the department head for “Game and Tactical Analysis & Scouting” at the International Football Institute. At VfL Bochum, Brunnschneider will begin on November 1, 2025, as “Director of Scouting, Recruitment & Data” and, in this role, will also lead the team around chief scout Babacar Wane, among other responsibilities.

Sports-related responsibilities will be distributed among several people in the future. 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 advance the development of squad value management.

VfL has deliberately chosen not to appoint a second managing director alongside Ilja Kaenzig, aiming to move away from a person-centered structure toward a modern, functionally organized sports management structure.

The approach is to avoid limiting responsibility to a single individual, but rather to assign clear areas of responsibility to subject matter experts and to foster more open communication. Roles are assigned based on clear areas of responsibility with measurable impact. The flatter hierarchy is intended to improve and simplify processes, with decisions made based on the expertise of specialists and on internal impact rather than external factors.

After advancing to the DFB Cup round of 16, VfL Bochum returns to 2. Bundesliga action this weekend. On Sunday, 1. FC Magdeburg will visit Castroper Straße.