Now that we are a (bit more than a) year on from Max Eberl’s appointment at Bayern, we can start to evaluate his performance.
On March 1, 2024, Bayern Munich officially announced the signing of new board member for sport Max Eberl on a three year contract. A year (and about a month) on from Eberl joining Bayern, how has the 51-year-old fared in the job?
The reaction this signing was somewhat mixed, given both Eberl’s spotless record over around 15 years at Borussia Mönchengladbach and how his exit from Die Fohlen (along with subsequent signing for Rasenballsport Leipzig) completely tanked his reputation.
Nevertheless, he would get a clean slate at Bayern and his first real task…frankly, was a catastrophe. Though the decision to let previous head coach Thomas Tuchel go was made before his signing, it would be up to him to secure the former Borussia Dortmund manager’s successor. Uh…it was so bad. At least three managers were confirmed to have rejected Bayern and a further dozen rumors went by before Bayern finally landed on Vincent Kompany to take the job- the manager who had just seen Burnley take 24 points in the Premier League and get them soundly relegated. This was not a good start.
The summer transfer window saw Hiroki Itō, João Palhinha and Michael Olise join, while the (no brainer) decision to bring back Josip Stanišić was made. The former two have seen their campaigns disrupted through injury, but Olise has excelled. Fan favorites Matthjis de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui were sold.
Eberl also inherited a lot of troubles with player’s contracts, as seven players were out of contract by 2025 heading into the 2024/25 season. Eberl played with fire as he gave the players time to make their decision ahead of pushing them out while a transfer fee could be received, but his bets have all largely paid off as all of the key pillars of the team have renewed their contracts.
So that leads us to our big question: How would you rate the work done by Eberl’s first year at Bayern?
It is, of course, always difficult to rate a club official when, from the outside, it is hard to tell what they truly have done and how much is rumor. But, ultimately, Eberl has been rocketed to board member for sport and will receive the praise and critique from the successes and failures from Bayern’s sporting endeavors, whether right or wrong.
This writer gives Eberl a 6.5/10 so far. He has done an above average job and handled the contract negotiations brilliantly, but there have been too many hiccups along the way for him to have earned full trust.
