2016-05-25 13:23:38
Fredi Bobic is the new sports director at Eintracht Frankfurt. Photo: Sebastian Kahnert
(Photo: dpa)
As expected, the 44-year-old European champion from 1996 was in the running for the lucrative post on the supervisory board of the Bundesliga club that had just been saved. “Eintracht Frankfurt is a big club. I know about the big footsteps that my predecessor Heribert Bruchhagen left me,” Bobic said in a club press release.
The 37-time national player receives a contract until June 30, 2019 and will be presented by Eintracht on his first day at work on June 1. Bruchhagen is retiring after twelve and a half years with Eintracht. The pros sweetened his departure on Monday evening by winning the relegation second leg in Nuremberg and thus successfully saving him from relegation.
The top official, recognized in the German professional business, leaves Bobic some tasks. The future of sports director Bruno Hübner still has to be clarified. Although he has a contract until 2019, he has recently shown no luck with transfers. Unlike Bruchhagen recently, Bobic will work very closely with the team and the coach. A coexistence with Hübner is therefore difficult to imagine.
For the spirited Bobic, who used to fight many heated duels on the pitch and still likes to flare up, it is the first big job outside of the usual environment. From 2010 to 2014 he was sporting director at VfB Stuttgart. There he once matured into a national striker.
After his departure he had to let all kinds of dirt be thrown at him. His successor, Robin Dutt, who is now also on leave, made a general reckoning in 2015: When he took office, he found “no structured squad planning” from Bobic, “more money was spent than it was taken in” and “only short-term thought was given”.
In Frankfurt, Bobic, who was born in Maribor, Slovenia, and grew up in Stuttgart, now has to build a new team quickly so that Eintracht does not experience another shaky season like this year. “I promise to do everything in my power to ensure the club’s success,” he said. He can rely on the Croatian head coach Niko Kovac (contract until 2017).
“The season must be critically analyzed” – Bruchhagen had given this sentence to his designated successor before it was even announced. Transfer policy and youth work are just two of the construction sites on which the new strong man on the board is required.
Bobic began his managerial career in 2009 with a one-year stint as managing director at the Bulgarian club Chernomorets Burgas. His former teammate Krassimir Balakov was a coach there. The long-time Bundesliga professional (108 goals in 285 games) was promoted to the board in Stuttgart in 2013. When the Swabians under Armin Veh were bottom of the table after four games, Bobic had to go.
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