Speaking to 11Freunde (via Rheinische Post) former Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director Max Eberl has opened up on his departure from the club.
In January 2022, Eberl announced that he would leave Gladbach after a career at the club that spanned multiple different roles on and off the pitch. After never really addressing the topic since his departure, Eberl has finally gave insight in his reason for stepping away from the club.
The main reason for his departure was burnout:
“Let’s put it this way: It went in that direction. I was burned out, I was no longer able to carry on with my life in the way I was used to and do this job in the way that I am now able to do again and that I enjoy doing.”
Eberl added:
“I realized that I had lost myself at some point along the way, that I was only fulfilling a role.”
A year before Eberl planned to leave, head coach Marco Rose announced that he was to join Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season, instead of dismissing the coach, Eberl decided to keep Rose in charge for the rest of the season and Gladbach’s form drastically declined. On his decision to keep the now RB Leipzig coach in charge and how it contributed to his burnout, Eberl said:
“By reaching the Conference League, I hoped I had made the right decision to hold on to Marco. When that went wrong, I knew straight away: It’s too much.”
The Bavarian native also states the media played a big part in his burnout:
“In the months before, the pressure on me had become extreme, many things were written about me without me ever being asked for my point of view.”
A few months after Eberl had left Gladbach, he was then signed up to take the sporting director role at Leipzig. This promoted backlash from the Gladbach supporters. On the accusations against him faking his burnout to move to Leipzig, he said:
“It was strange to me that at the moment when speculation about my retirement began, rumors arose that I was just putting on a show to get out as quickly as possible and sign with RB Leipzig. Since then, there has been no further contact with those in charge at Borussia Mönchengladbach.”
Eberl then added:
“Anyone who claims that I had already planned to sign in Leipzig at the end of the year in January 2022 has no idea or is lying.”
Gladbach’s former sporting director then confirms it was not money-driven but more based on winning titles:
“I earned more in Gladbach than in Leipzig, and in Munich I get less than at RB,”
Adding:
“In professional football, it is sometimes common for protagonists to sit out their dismissal in order to collect a severance payment,” he says. “I can say in good conscience: I voluntarily terminated the two best-paid contracts of my life and gave up a lot of money.”
Eberl also said that Leipzig opened their pitch to bring him to the club with “that we could win titles together.” which was “tempting,”
Now Eberl is at his boyhood club Bayern Munich where he began his career as a play and supported as a child. On the differences between his life now and two years ago, he said:
“When we reached the Champions League in Gladbach, everyone around me was hugging each other. But all I could think of were questions like: ‘Oh God, are we even competitive with this squad? What kind of transfers do I have to make now?’ Today I can sit in the garden with my partner and the dog – and I’m completely at peace with myself. I’m just me! I never felt like that forty years ago.”
GGFN | Jack Meenan
