VfL Bochum has signed a technical director. An ex-Schalker has moved to Castroper Straße from Union Berlin.
In an interview with RevierSport, VfL Bochum’s sporting director Patrick Fabian recently announced his intention to spread the club’s administrative tasks over several shoulders. The VfL has found a competitor in the Bundesliga.
With Marc Lettau, Fabian has brought the head of the professional players’ department of Union Berlin to his side. He will take over the position of technical director in Bochum. The two clubs made the announcement on Tuesday afternoon.
The 37-year-old had been at the Alte Försterei since May 2018, deputy managing director and partly responsible for the Köpenicker’s steep success curve. Promotion followed in 2019, and this season the East Berliners are on the road in Europe.
Former youth coordinator at FC Schalke
Lettau was guided to the Eisernen by Oliver Ruhnert, who was promoted from head scout to managing director of professional football at the same time. The two know each other from their time together at FC Schalke 04. Ruhnert was head of the youth department between 2011 and 2017, while Lettau was youth coordinator and co-coach of the U17s from 2011 to 2016. On an interim basis, he also took over full-time responsibility for the B Juniors for a month and also assisted with the U16s between 2015 and 2016.
In his four years at Union, his clever transfer policy was characterised above all by loans and signings on a free transfer basis. Players such as Nico Schlotterbeck and Max Kruse were signed. VfL also felt the effects of this approach: last summer, Milos Pantovic left Castroper Straße without a transfer fee after strong performances, but has not yet been able to establish himself at Union.
“Marc has done his job very professionally all these years and was a reliable building block in our department,” Ruhnert said in a Union statement on Lettau’s departure. “The fact that he can now take another step in Bochum is to be congratulated on him. We wish him every success in this. “
Return to the Ruhr area
Lettau is now expected to help steer the fortunes of squad planning in Bochum in the right direction. “Marc Lettau has been able to make his contribution to the highly successful history of Union Berlin through his work in recent years,” Fabian said in the VfL release. “We have always found in previous meetings that we have the same high standards and goals in terms of strategy, structure and professionalisation.”
The new man himself also commented: “For me, it is a return to the Ruhr region after very intensive and successful years at 1. FC Union Berlin. I am looking forward to the highly exciting challenge at VfL Bochum. Football is alive and well here in the Ruhr, the importance is enormous and the enthusiasm is huge,” he said, not having to think twice about the offer. “And so the full focus is now on the common goal of keeping the Bundesliga. “
