Bayern Munich's Power Struggle: Eberl, Freund, and the Fallout from Schmadtke’s Exit
The search for a new key figure in Bayern Munich’s sporting structure has exposed a fault line at the top of the club. What started as a straightforward succession plan has turned into a quiet test of power between Max Eberl and Christoph Freund.
According to reports from tz and the Münchner Merkur, Freund was handed the brief to find a replacement for Timon Paul Schmadtke and quickly settled on a familiar name: Christopher Vivell.
Vivell, the RB Man in the Firing Line
Vivell ticks every box on Freund’s profile sheet. A Karlsruhe native, just 39, he has lived the modern Red Bull football project from the inside. Chief scout at RB Salzburg, squad planner at RB Leipzig, then technical director at Chelsea, and now in charge of Manchester United’s struggling scouting department.
Freund and Vivell know each other well from Salzburg, where both helped build the club’s reputation as a talent factory. On paper, it looked like a neat reunion and a logical appointment for Bayern.
Then the brakes went on.
As tz and the Münchner Merkur report, Bayern’s interest in Vivell has cooled. Not because of his CV, but because of politics. Or more precisely, because of Eberl.
The board member for sport, who is formally Freund’s superior, is said to have serious reservations about bringing yet another figure from the RB cosmos into a central role at Bayern. For a club that prides itself on its own identity, the creeping “RB-isation” of its sporting department has clearly become a sensitive topic.
Two RB Pasts, One Bayern Present
The irony is hard to miss: Eberl himself carries RB baggage.
After stepping down from his long-term role as sporting director at Borussia Mönchengladbach in early 2022 for health reasons, he resurfaced in September 2022 as managing director for sport at RB Leipzig. The move triggered a storm in Mönchengladbach, where fans who had long admired him suddenly felt betrayed.
His time at Leipzig ended abruptly after just a year and a half. In late September 2023, the club announced his departure, citing a “lack of commitment”. By then, Bayern’s board-level sporting role had been vacant for months following Hasan Salihamidzic’s exit in May 2023, and Eberl’s name had been circling around Säbener Straße for some time.
Freund, meanwhile, had already arrived from RB Salzburg in the summer of 2023 and had been allowed to shape Bayern’s squad planning with a relatively free hand. When Eberl finally took over as Bayern’s board member for sport in March 2024, the power structure shifted.
From that moment, the question was no longer just who Bayern would sign, but who would actually call the shots.
“Forced Marriage” or Functional Partnership?
Media coverage has not been kind to the relationship between Eberl and Freund. Reports have painted a picture of tension and tactical mistrust. kicker went as far as describing the constellation in April 2026 as a “forced marriage”, pointing to several internal differences.
Freund pushed back publicly.
“That surprised me too,” he said last summer when asked about alleged internal rifts. He insisted the collaboration was enjoyable and stressed that what mattered was the internal reality – and that, he said, “works very, very well.”
On the surface, the results on the pitch have supported that version. Together with manager Vincent Kompany, Eberl and Freund have overseen a period of renewed sporting stability. Bayern rewarded both with contract extensions only a few months ago.
Yet the Vivell episode and, more dramatically, the fallout around Schmadtke’s departure suggest that harmony at board level has its limits.
Schmadtke Leaves – and Eberl Loses an Ally
Inside the club, Schmadtke was widely regarded as Eberl’s man. The son of Eberl’s friend Jörg Schmadtke joined Bayern in October 2024, and Eberl is said to have pushed hard to extend his deal through to summer 2027.
That protection has now evaporated.
Schmadtke has been under heavy internal fire for months. His role and performance were questioned, his position weakened piece by piece. The final outcome is clear: Bayern and Schmadtke will part ways prematurely at the end of January 2027.
The criticism went beyond sporting decisions. Rumours circulated that Schmadtke had leaked confidential information from inside Bayern to the media, an accusation that cuts to the core of trust in any top club.
On Thursday evening, Schmadtke fought back in a pointed LinkedIn post.
“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.”
The message was clear: he rejects the role of scapegoat.
Who Really Holds the Reins Now?
Schmadtke’s exit does more than free up a position. It strips Eberl of a close confidant inside the sporting structure. The man he had backed, defended and extended is gone. The next appointment in that area now becomes a litmus test for his influence.
Freund’s preferred choice, Vivell, has already run into resistance. Eberl’s scepticism about another RB figure in a key job has cooled the move before it ever reached the finish line. For a club that has long prided itself on clear hierarchies, the internal tug-of-war is unmistakable.
On the pitch, the trio of Eberl, Freund and Kompany continues to deliver. Off it, the question lingers: in the post-Schmadtke landscape, will Bayern belong more to Eberl’s vision, or to Freund’s?
