Max Eberl

Maximilian Michael Eberl (; born 21 September 1973) is a German professional football executive and former player who works as Bayern Munich's director of sport. He previously was the longtime director of sport of Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Playing career

Born in Bogen, Eberl's career as a professional footballer began in 1991 as a defender with Bayern Munich. A highly rated youngster, he represented Germany at the 1993 FIFA World Youth Championship in Australia. During the tournament he started the group games against Ghana and Portugal.

After making only one Bundesliga appearance in two years at Munich, Eberl dropped down a division to the 2. Bundesliga to play for VfL Bochum. Eberl spent four seasons at Bochum, split evenly between the top two divisions, before moving to Greuther Fürth. He spent only 18 months playing for Greuther Fürth before moving to Borussia Mönchengladbach halfway through the 1998–99 season. Eberl saw out the rest of his career with Mönchengladbach, retiring in 2005. In a career lasting over 200 games in the first and second Bundesliga, Eberl did not score a single goal.

Executive career

Borussia Mönchengladbach

At the beginning of 2005, Eberl worked as youth coordinator at Borussia Mönchengladbach; he was still officially part of the squad for the 2004/05 season.

After head coach Jos Luhukay was dismissed on 5 October 2008, Eberl and Steffen Korell took over responsibility for finding a new coach; sports director Christian Ziege coached the professional team as interim coach.

When Borussia and Eberl's former head coach Hans Meyer took over as head coach on 19 October 2008, Eberl took over the position of sports director from Christian Ziege, who became co-coach under Meyer. On 24 June 2010, he was promoted to the management board of Borussia Mönchengladbach GmbH as managing director of sports.

Following the resignation of Hans Meyer, Eberl hired Michael Frontzeck for the 2009/10 season, whom he retained for a long time despite relegation worries in 2011. After two consecutive defeats against direct rivals (2–3 against VfB Stuttgart on matchday 21 and 1–3 at St. Pauli on matchday 22), Frontzeck was dismissed. One day later, Lucien Favre was appointed as the new coach. This initiated a race to catch up, which ended with 36 points and saw them reach the relegation spot. Borussia Mönchengladbach came out on top in the deciding matches against VfL Bochum.

This was followed by a very successful era for Borussia under coach Lucien Favre, in which they qualified for the Europa League twice and for the group stage of the Champions League for the first time in 2015. Nevertheless, Favre resigned on 20 September 2015 after six consecutive defeats in competitive matches at the start of the season, against the wishes of Eberl and the rest of the club management.

Eberl promoted André Schubert, the coach of the U-23s, to interim coach, who ended the season very successfully by qualifying for the Champions League once again. Despite this success and his permanent appointment as head coach in the winter, Schubert did not get off to a good start in the following season and Eberl dismissed him shortly before Christmas 2016.

Dieter Hecking was appointed as his successor and finished the season in ninth place. Borussia remained in this position after the following season. The 18/19 season was then more successful and ultimately ended in fifth place, qualifying for the Europa League. Although this success was on the cards, Eberl informed Hecking and the public at the beginning of April 2019 that the collaboration would not continue beyond the end of the season. Hecking was replaced by Marco Rose the following year.

The approach of replacing a successful coach with another who was expected to deliver even more was the subject of controversial public debate. Ultimately, Eberl was right in his decision, as Marco Rose finished his debut season in fourth place and thus qualified for the Champions League once again.

The period under Max Eberl is regarded as Borussia's most successful phase since the titles of the 1970s. Since Favre's appointment in particular, the club has finished every season in a single-digit position in the table, something only Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund had achieved in this period. They also reached the Europa League and the Champions League three times each in those nine years.

Eberl's tenure saw many notable transfers with Dante, Marco Reus, Granit Xhaka, Christoph Kramer, Max Kruse, Lars Stindl, Matthias Ginter and several others, as well as a number of successful players from the club's own youth ranks such as Tony Jantschke, Marc-André ter Stegen, Patrick Herrmann and Julian Korb.

Eberl's contract was extended in December 2020 until 30 June 2026. At the end of January 2022, he stepped down as managing director of sport due to "exhaustion". He was subsequently released before a contract termination was agreed in September 2022.

RB Leipzig

Eberl then became director of sport at RB Leipzig in December 2022. On 29 September 2023, RB Leipzig announced his immediate termination due to a perceived lack of commitment to the club.

Bayern Munich

In January 2024, it was reported that Eberl would sign a contract with Bayern Munich as director of sport. A month later, he officially signed a contract with Bayern Munich until June 2027 and commenced work on 1 March 2024.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eberl, Max
1973 births
Living people
German men's footballers
Germany men's youth international footballers
Germany men's under-21 international footballers
Bundesliga players
2. Bundesliga players
FC Bayern Munich footballers
FC Bayern Munich II players
VfL Bochum players
SpVgg Greuther Fürth players
Borussia Mönchengladbach players
Men's association football defenders
Borussia Mönchengladbach non-playing staff
RB Leipzig non-playing staff
FC Bayern Munich non-playing staff