Despite the result, the 0-0 draw between 1. FC Köln and RB Leipzig was a really good Bundesliga game. But the sporty thing is pushed into the background because of abusive posters against RB sports director Max Eberl. He then reacts extremely emotionally to the hostilities.
Max Eberl didn’t really want to say anything about it. But the abusive posters in the stands had such an effect that the head of sports at RB Leipzig then gave a highly emotional insight into his soul. “I would be interested to know if these people know what burnout means,” said the 49-year-old after the 0-0 draw in the Bundesliga at 1. FC Köln, which some spectators in the stadium had used to Eberl and to denigrate the illness he had survived.
“Burnout is when people push themselves until they can’t anymore. And beyond that. Some drown it in alcohol, some take drugs, some kill themselves. That’s the hard truth,” said Eberl, who January 2022 resigned from arch-rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach in Cologne for health reasons and hired in Leipzig on December 1. The move to the Saxons had been heavily criticized in fan circles because of the rejection of the RB business model, and personally Eberl had already been verbally attacked.
When asked if he would be as open with his mental life after this experience as he was at his resignation press conference more than a year ago, Eberl said: “I had to do it. Otherwise I might have ended up somewhere else. And that’s where I want to be Not be.” At the time he couldn’t think about going public. “My body and my mind said to me: this is the end, enough is enough.” He’s “zero point zero about me. I’m over it. But I wasn’t the only one who was sick. Many people out there have these issues. I fought my way out of it. Everyone else has the chance,” said Eberl.
That’s why he wanted to “show that it’s possible. And I want to show that strength means admitting weakness. When parts of society think they exploit this weakness and step on it, that’s sad. If you’re constantly being ridiculed and ridiculed, that’s true It’s clear that people don’t stand up and say I’m sick. These people should put that behind their heads.” After all, said Eberl, this had “not yet happened” to him since his return. “In general, I’m incredibly happy to be back in football.”
The Cologne sports director Christian Keller was shocked. “These are not the values ????of 1. FC Köln,” said the FC managing director. Some posters in the past against patron Dietmar Hopp in games against TSG Hoffenheim were “even more tasteless”: “But you don’t have to talk about whether something is very tasteless or even more tasteless. Any form of discrimination does not belong in football -Stadion.”
He also saw a number of posters “that showed in a creative and decent way that you don’t like the RB model,” said Keller. But with the personal posters “you tear down this creativity. Because that’s not how the message gets across. Because only what is discriminatory gets stuck.” Basically, posters in the Cologne stadium are subject to approval. “But things are always brought in without it,” said the FC sports director: “We didn’t approve these posters, that goes without saying.”
In the end, less was talked about the game, although it was a 0-0 of the much better kind. While the strong Cologne team were very satisfied, the Leipzig team didn’t know exactly how to evaluate the point. The chance to overtake FC Bayern for at least 24 hours and put him under pressure was missed. Eberl therefore classified the draw as “mixed”. Of course, that only applied to the sporting record.
