Bayern Munich Power Struggles: Eberl, Freund, and the Aftermath of Schmadtke’s Exit
The departure of Timon Paul Schmadtke has not just opened up a key position at Bayern Munich. It has exposed the fault lines in the club’s new sporting hierarchy.
According to reports from tz and the Münchner Merkur, sporting director Christoph Freund had been tasked with finding a successor to Schmadtke and quickly identified a clear favourite: Christopher Vivell.
On paper, Vivell fits the modern Bayern blueprint. A 39-year-old Karlsruhe native, he currently leads the scouting department at Manchester United, even if that operation has hardly covered itself in glory. Before that, he climbed the Red Bull ladder – chief scout at RB Salzburg, squad planner at RB Leipzig, then technical director at Chelsea.
Freund knows exactly what Vivell brings. The two worked closely together in Salzburg, where the RB model of aggressive scouting and squad building became one of European football’s most admired pipelines.
For a brief moment, it looked like Bayern might import another piece of that system.
RB DNA meets Bayern resistance
As tz and Münchner Merkur report, interest in Vivell has cooled. Not because of his CV, but because of politics. More specifically, because of Max Eberl.
Bayern’s board member for sport, and Freund’s superior in the hierarchy, is said to harbour doubts about filling yet another key role with someone from the RB orbit. Coming from Eberl, that is laced with irony.
He, too, carries an RB chapter in his past.
After leaving Borussia Mönchengladbach in early 2022, officially for health reasons, Eberl resurfaced at RB Leipzig in December of that year as managing director for sport. The move detonated in Mönchengladbach. A fanbase that had largely adored him turned sharply, accusing him of betrayal and opportunism.
His time in Leipzig did not end quietly either. After just 18 months, the club and Eberl parted ways in September 2023, Leipzig citing a “lack of commitment”. By then, the link to Bayern had been constant background noise. Hasan Salihamidžić had left in May 2023, leaving the board member for sport role vacant, and Eberl’s name kept circling over Säbener Straße.
In March 2024, the long courtship ended. Eberl arrived in Munich.
By that point, Freund – who had joined from RB Salzburg in the summer of 2023 – had already shaped much of Bayern’s squad planning and transfer strategy. Two strong sporting figures, both with RB histories, suddenly had to share the same space.
A “forced marriage” or a functioning duo?
The question quickly followed: how well do Eberl and Freund actually get along?
In recent months, several German outlets have painted a tense picture. kicker went furthest, describing the relationship in April 2026 as a “forced marriage” and highlighting multiple points of friction between the pair.
Freund pushed back hard. Speaking at a press conference last summer, he said he was “surprised” by the reports of internal rifts and insisted: “It’s enjoyable working together. What matters is how things work internally, and they work very, very well.”
Publicly, at least, the front remains united. On the pitch, the results support that version. Together with head coach Vincent Kompany, the Eberl–Freund axis has helped Bayern stabilise and refresh a squad that had drifted. The club recently extended both men’s contracts, a clear signal of trust from the hierarchy.
Yet behind the scenes, not everything has moved in Eberl’s favour.
Schmadtke’s exit – and a lost ally
The early end to Timon Paul Schmadtke’s time in Munich cuts particularly deep for Eberl.
The 37‑year‑old, son of long-time sporting director Jörg Schmadtke, arrived at Bayern in October 2024. Eberl brought him in and, according to reports, strongly backed him internally, even helping secure an extension of his contract through to the summer of 2027.
That plan has unravelled quickly.
For months, Schmadtke faced heavy internal criticism over his work and his role. The club and the executive will now part ways at the end of January 2027, years earlier than planned.
The situation escalated further when rumours emerged that Schmadtke had leaked confidential information from inside Bayern to the media. On Thursday evening, he went public on LinkedIn to defend himself, addressing the accusations in unusually direct terms.
“I have never passed confidential information to the media. Not in Munich and not anywhere else. I have never put down people under my responsibility,” he wrote. “I am demanding, and sometimes uncomfortable when it comes to quality. I am not disrespectful. And none of what was written had even the slightest connection to my departure from Bayern Munich. I do not speak publicly about internal matters. I have not done so at any of my previous posts, and that remains the case now.”
With Schmadtke gone, Eberl loses a close confidant inside the sporting structure – someone he trusted and personally installed.
At the same time, his resistance to another RB figure in Vivell hints at a broader power struggle over the club’s direction. Freund’s network and ideas have deep Red Bull roots. Eberl knows that world well, but he appears reluctant to let Bayern drift too far into that identity.
The next appointment in Schmadtke’s old area will say plenty. Not just about who holds the pen on key decisions, but about what kind of Bayern Munich is being built behind Kompany’s touchline work – and whose vision ultimately wins.
