Speaking to Kicker, Max Eberl spoke on his absence from football and leaving Borussia Mönchengladbach to join RB Leipzig only a few months later.
In January of 2022, Eberl left Gladbach due to needing to take a break from football then on December 1st 2022, he became RB Leipzig’s sporting director. On his sabbatical, Eberl said: “These months since January 2022 have been calm, source of energy, reflection for me and I’m glad that I’m sitting here again full of energy and desire.”
Gladbach and Leipzig are also two different types of clubs with things being run differently, Eberl emphasised the difference between the two: “I now experience completely different processes and structures in everyday life than I was previously familiar with. I worked for an employer for 23 years where I was allowed to accompany and build everything up. Now I’m moving to a different company and I’m just getting to know what has been built up there in a really great way in recent years, I’m not a one-man show, I’ve always been a team player, I’m not someone who strives for power and I don’t feel like the mouthpiece or face of RB Leipzig either. I’m not at all entitled to appear as the big boss or face of the club.”
However, during his time at Gladbach, Eberl had been critical of Leipzig and the way they are run contradicts everything about German football, Eberl addressed this: “Of course I acted polemically at the time, because I didn’t have the opportunities with my club like Leipzig, and that I fought with my club against the others at the time may be conceded to me, by the way, I always have spoke appreciatively about RB again and emphasized that you not only have money in Leipzig but also achieve great things with it. In that respect, it was not an incredibly big change of heart.”
Finally, Eberl expresses his reasoning for joining Leipzig: “Of course, I came to RB to win titles. That’s what I get up for every day.”
Eberl had spent 23 years at Gladbach in a variety of roles first as academy manager before becoming sporting director in 2008. During his tenure, he helped turn Gladbach from a mid-table Bundesliga team to now being able to challenge for European places.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
