The game between Borussia Mönchengladbach and RB Leipzig ends with 3:0. But that’s not the topic of the evening, but the upcoming change of sports director Max Eberl. Gladbach fans show posters against him in the stands. Referee Patrick Ittrich threatens to abandon the game.
Gladbach player Christoph Kramer sharply criticized the way some of his own fans expressed anger at Marco Rose and Max Eberl. “I think it’s an absolute mess. That’s not right,” said the midfielder after the 3-0 (2-0) win against RB Leipzig on Saturday night. During the game, Borussia Mönchengladbach fans insulted Leipzig coach Rose with rude songs and the former Gladbach sports director with crude slogans on posters.
“I appreciate both humanly and athletically unbelievably. I can understand displeasure. I don’t find the RB construct very romantic now. But hate has no place on the sports field, in our club, in the world we live in,” said Kramer further.
Rose had worked for Borussia as a coach between 2019 and 2021, but announced in spring 2021 that he would switch to Borussia from Dortmund, which was unpopular on the Lower Rhine, with an exit clause. The Gladbach fans took it amiss because he had always announced that he wanted to build something in Mönchengladbach in the long term. After his failure as a BVB coach, Rose is now a coach in Leipzig.
The longtime Gladbach sports director Eberl declared in tears in January that he was exhausted and needed a break from football. His contract in Gladbach, which runs until 2026, has been on hold ever since. It has been known for some time that RB Leipzig would like to sign Eberl. According to RB managing director Oliver Mintzlaff, the deal, in which a fee would have to be paid for Borussia, is nearing completion.
The Borussia fans were particularly harsh on Eberl. In an open letter the week before the game against Leipzig, the Gladbach fan project accused Eberl of lying, among other things. Posters hung in the stadium during Saturday’s game, which called Eberl a “characterless asshole”. “It wasn’t just a shovel. It was a few shovels,” said Kramer.
According to referee Patrick Ittrich, there was even a risk of the game being abandoned. Through the announcement of the stadium announcer, he had asked the fans in the north stand to remove an insulting poster. It said: “A son-of-a-bitch association only hires sons of a bitch.” With such insults, he has a “relatively short leash,” said Ittrich on Sky.
“I was never afraid that this game would be abandoned. Over the past three months I have got to know Borussia Mönchengladbach as a club full of style and class. I’ve always gotten to know our fans like that,” said Gladbach coach Daniel Farke. In fact, the poster was removed after a short time.
