Since departing Borussia Mönchengladbach under personally stressful circumstances in the winter of 2022, Max Eberl has experienced plenty of unhappy homecomings. The current Bayern Munich chief sporting executive drew the ire of Gladbach supporters when he opted to sign on with RB Leipzig less than a year later. Protests from Gladbach fans and other Bundesliga clubs have followed him these past three-and-a-half years.
Eberl will surely once again have to digest some rough banners at Borussia Park on Saturday afternoon. Whatever greets the 52-year-old this time, however, will surely be more palatable after his heavily favored current club pulls out a convincing victory. Eberl – sitting next to FCB head coach Vincent Kompany at Friday’s pre-match press conference – nevertheless sought to emphasize that he still had hopes for his old club.
“Borussia Mönchengladbach’s collapse is obviously something I’ve been following closely,” Eberl noted when asked about the return. “I was there for 23 years [as a player and a front office manager] and both Bayern and Gladbach are close to my heart. I think they’ve made two good decisions with [interim head coach] Eugen [Polanski] and [newly appointed sporting director] Rouven [Schröder].
“And I hope that they can start collecting points from Sunday [the day after the Bayern match] onwards,” Eberl continued. “That’s obviously said with my current interests at heart, but I hope they can get out [of their crisis]. My familiarity with the environment means I know what’s going on there. I know that when they [the administrative team] band together, they’ll get out of it and climb up to mid-table. That’s my wish for them.”
