Immediately behind Gate 3, the large entrance to the Frankfurt Arena, the future of an ambitious Bundesliga soccer team is taking shape: the construction of the Eintracht Frankfurt office, including the professional campus, is making rapid progress. From summer on, almost 250 employees and the licensed player department will find a new home on the site of the former tennis facility. And now it is also clear who will then be in charge of the sporting area: Markus Krösche will be the new sporting director of Eintracht Frankfurt from June 1st. The supervisory board has apparently unanimously clarified the successor to the builder Fredi Bobic, who is moving to Hertha BSC. Krösche, 40, receives a four-year contract with the Champions League contender. “His commitment is an absolute hit for our club,” said the chairman of the supervisory board, Philip Holzer, who quickly reached an agreement with the sports director who had just left RB Leipzig.
Nevertheless, Krösche’s obligation accompanies a little contradiction. No club is viewed as critically up to the highest management level in Frankfurt as Krösche’s former employer RB. Eintracht President Peter Fischer did not first give a public angry speech about the Red Bull construct, and the reservations of CEO Axel Hellmann are also guaranteed. As a result, the two front men were extremely skeptical when Holzer recently met with Leipzig’s long-time project manager Ralf Rangnick. During the personal exchange of opinions two and a half weeks ago, the realization quickly matured that one does not fit together.
Shortly afterwards, piquant details leaked to the public: for example, that Frankfurt’s goal scorer André Silva had an exit clause, and that Filip Kostic, who was an important template for the team, had verbal approval for a change. Holzer was irritated by “incorrectly reproduced conversation content”, which he located on the Rangnick page. The former head of shares at Goldman Sachs apparently got along much better with Krösche, he speaks of the RB man as a “human catcher in a positive sense”.
Eintracht collects millions for the migrating Bobic and Hütter – and is therefore in line with the trend
Born in Hanover, Krösche brings a multifaceted vita with him to the Main metropolis. As a player, he won the A youth championship with Werder Bremen in 1999, but did not make it to the Bundesliga professionals. Nonetheless, today’s Werder President Hubertus Hess-Grunewald noticed how attentive the midfielder was for the community. In the summer of 2005, Krösche moved to SC Paderborn, became a record player there, and ended his career in 2014 with his first promotion to the Bundesliga. At the same time, he completed a degree in business administration, founded a car leasing company with his wife and soon became his football teacher. Until he stated for himself – since he was already managing director at SC Paderborn: “I enjoy being the sports director the most.” And because the novice manager Krösche played a major role in the march through the East Westphalia from the third division to the Bundesliga, the call from Leipzig overtook him in 2019. However, Krösche did not like some restructuring at RB, he did not want to tolerate a curtailment of his competencies – last week it was agreed to terminate the contract.
Two builders who are leaving Eintracht: Trainer Adi Hütter (left) goes to Gladbach, manager Fredi Bobic to Hertha BSC.
(Photo: Arne Dedert / dpa)
—
In Frankfurt, he now has to deal with the fact that the Corona crisis has drawn deep swaths: Sales have shrunk by almost half, and a state guarantee was required to secure the infrastructure projects. After all: Since Dortmund and Leipzig are in the cup final, Eintracht has a Europa League starting place for sure.
Now the next thing to do is to find a new coach, as Adi Hütter (to Borussia Mönchengladbach) has also submitted his departure. The name Roger Schmidt can be removed from the list of candidates, Schmidt has confirmed that he will remain with PSV Eindhoven. The evidence is growing that the trail leads to Oliver Glasner (VfL Wolfsburg). Presumably, concrete negotiations will take place with Hütter’s Austrian compatriot as soon as he has submitted his request for a change to the works association. An exit clause including the transfer fee would not be a big problem for Eintracht, despite the need to save corona, which collects around ten million euros in compensation for the migrating architects Bobic and Hütter alone. The Glasner castling would also go well with the current zeitgeist of the Bundesliga, where coaches and managers have replaced the players as objects of speculation and exchange.
– .
