Status: 02.10.2023, 07:50 a.m.
By: Melanie Gottschalk
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RB Leipzig have parted ways with Max Eberl one day before the top match against FC Bayern. A reporter sees the reason for this in an interview.
Leipzig – Before and after the top match between FC Bayern and RB Leipzig on Saturday, one topic in particular dominated: the expulsion of Max Eberl from the Saxons on Friday. According to Red Bull managing director Oliver Mintzlaff, the reason was Eberl's lack of commitment. "There is a lack of commitment to the club, to the city," he said before the game on the Sky microphone. Although Mintzlaff affirmed that it was a trial, a different suspicion was raised in the ZDF sports studio.
| Max Eberl | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth: | 21 September 1973 (age 50) in Bogen |
| Last post: | Managing Director Sport RB Leipzig |
ZDF reporter suspects special interview behind Eberl's lack of confession
ZDF reporter Thomas Skulski spoke to Mintzlaff about Eberl's interview last Wednesday in Sportbild: "Max Eberl said on Wednesday in Sportbild when asked about flirting with Bayern: 'I'm under contract with RB Leipzig.' I would be mistaken if your media department did not propose a different text. But that's exactly what he wanted. Is it that, the lack of confession, that you have been missing?'"
Mintzlaff countered that he hadn't read the interview at all. "We have freedom of expression at RB Leipzig. If that's his opinion and his answer, then that's his answer. For us, what is said in one of the many interviews is not decisive. For us, the decisive factor is how the whole thing is lived. And that's when we in the management came to the conclusion that it no longer makes sense. That's where we're consistent."
Max Eberl had to take his hat off at RB Leipzig. © Revierfoto/imago
Mintzlaff defends timing of Eberl's expulsion
Mintzlaff defended the timing of the expulsion one day before the game against FC Bayern. "You could see today that it didn't have any impact, I had already said that before the game," he said on the ZDF microphone – adding: "There wasn't a big bang either. It's not that we argued either – on the contrary. Max and I had a very decent and good phone call yesterday." It is also not the case that there is anything between him and Eberl. "That was a decision that Max could also understand and that he accepted," said the managing director of Red Bull on Saturday evening.
Bayer Leverkusen's sporting director Simon Rolfes, who was a guest at the Current Sports Studio on Saturday evening, would be critical of Eberl's quick move to FC Bayern, where he has been traded for some time. "After such a separation – for whatever reason it happened – I would find it difficult to start somewhere else right away," said the ex-professional: "But I don't want to judge that in the end." (msb/dpa)
