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Christoph Freund (46) will be the new sporting director at Bayern Munich from September. Until now, almost only football fanatics know his name. But one thing is already clear: the man is a master of his craft and must now also prove his skills in Munich.
Specifically, he should make Bayern really great again. For Munich standards, last season, in which it is known that there was ‘only’ the championship trophy of the Bundesliga in extremis on the last match day, felt like a failure.
But who is the man who has experienced an almost meteoric rise in recent years?
Freund is one of the few people in the football world about whom you almost never hear anything negative. He is considered unpretentious, a great person and smart in negotiations. As a professional footballer, the native of Salzburg did not get further than the second highest Austrian league, he spent most of his career in the regional league.
But then fate followed: his father died unexpectedly and Freund had to end his career at the age of 24 and take over the family carpentry business. After hanging up the boots, he was hired at Red Bull Salzburg in 2006 as team manager. And he sold the joinery in Leogang (Austria) to a friend.
Talents instead of overpriced stars
Sports director Ralf Rangnick (65) promoted Freund to sports coordinator in 2012 and showed him his profession. “He lives for this job, in addition to competence and network, he brings a strong personality and integrity,” the current national coach of Austria tells the “kicker” about his former right-hand man. In 2015, when Rangnick only worked for RB Leipzig, the coordinator became the new sports director at Salzburg. He continued the “unknown and talented instead of old star and expensive” strategy and had even more success with it than his predecessor.
Freund’s successes include discovering, contracting and reselling world stars such as Erling Haaland (22) and Sadio Mané (31). Salzburg has been series champions in the Austrian Bundesliga since 2013, always in the Champions League for the past four years and in the semi-finals of the Europa League in 2017/18. In addition, there is a transfer surplus of 400 million euros, generated by 50 million sales.
A year ago, the Salzburg native was courted by Chelsea, but decided not to move to the island to stay close to his family. Something that is 150 kilometers away in Munich.
Can Freund adapt to Bayern?
Bayern is now looking forward to the Austrian. He was brought in “to escape a bit from the madness of the transfer market,” chairman Herbert Hainer (69) told the Süddeutsche Zeitung “SZ”.
A statement that is in complete contrast to the offer of 100 million for Harry Kane (29) and the foundation of Freund. “We are convinced that Freund is the right person to further strengthen the team together with the coaching team around Thomas Tuchel and technical director Marco Neppe,” says CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen (56) when asked by the German media about the engagement.
Freund will probably have to adapt in Munich: Bayern want to get back to the top of Europe and they probably won’t achieve that by buying and selling talented juniors.
Freund tells the “kicker” and other sports media about his move to the reigning Bundesliga champions: “After the talks with those responsible at FC Bayern, it was clear to me that I wanted to take on this new challenge. It is important to me that a club has an identity and that is certainly what FC Bayern stands for.”
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
