RB Leipzig end long Sporting Director hunt with Eberl hire

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by Jonathan Rest

RB Leipzig have ended an 18-month search for a Sporting Director, announcing that Max Eberl will assume the position on December 15.

Max is a football expert and he has a fantastic network. He is a well respected name in the industry, both in Germany and internationally. During his many years at Mönchengladbach, he demonstrated how to build a club and how one can find solutions during difficult moments. He has proven himself as an expert in the transfer market and that he can also nurture talent.

Oliver Mintzlaff

CEO, RB Leipzig

Leipzig land 'dream candidate'

Eberl, who quit Borussia Monchengladbach at the start of the year, citing exhaustion, has signed a long-term contract in Leipzig and will join CEO Oliver Mintzlaff, CFO Florian Hopp and Chief Strategy Officer Johann Plenge on the club's executive board.

Eberl had been Gladbach's Sporting Director since October 2008, and his contract was not due to expire until the end of the 2025-26 season.

However the 48-year-old stepped down at the end of January 2022 saying he needed time away from the game, and had intended not to return to work until the start of the 2023-24 season.

Mintzlaff said RB Leipzig had secured their "dream candidate" for the Sporting Director role, which has been absent since Markus Krösche took on the same role at Eintracht Frankfurt in June 2021.

Ready to return

"After his press conference in January this year, I contacted Max to send my best wishes," he said. "I reached out a little while after, but he expressed the view that he needed a break from football and that he needed some time to himself, but we arranged to get back in touch with each other in the summer. From there, Max confirmed that he would be interested in our proposition but that he did not want to get involved before 1st July 2023. This somewhat opened the door for us and we are delighted that we have come to the agreement to begin in mid-December."

Mintzlaff continued: "Max is a football expert and he has a fantastic network. He is a well respected name in the industry, both in Germany and internationally. During his many years at Mönchengladbach, he demonstrated how to build a club and how one can find solutions during difficult moments. He has proven himself as an expert in the transfer market and that he can also nurture talent.

"It has taken us a while to fill this position, which has been vacant for almost one and a half years. It was always important for us to find someone who can develop RB Leipzig in the long term and to find someone who can take the club to the next level. This exactly what we have found in Max."

Eberl said: "I am thankful for the time I was given to recover; I feel ready and have the strength needed to want to work in football again. I’m coming to a club that has developed incredibly over the last few years, is really ambitious and stands for a clear style of football. There’s so much potential here, both at the club and in the whole region."

At RB Leipzig, Eberl will be reuniting with Manager Marco Rose, who was Gladbach coach between 2019 and 2021.

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