Mr. Nice Guy

Usually when teams lose a close match, the bosses insist that a chance for victory was there. Not so Mänchengladbach's Max Eberl after watching his side go down to Hoffenheim 1-0 over the weekend.

"I can't recall us even getting a shot off on goal," the sports director admitted to reporters after the game.

Eberl could afford to be frank, one could argue, because the Foals are off to their best season start in years. But in general, humility is a quality that sets the 38-year-old, who played as a defender for 14 years, apart from some of his peers.

"I wasn't a great technician, but I could give a team structure," Eberl told Deutsche Welle. "I think that's what people appreciated about me. I didn't overestimate my abilities. I was always very realistic about my performance."

Eberl's nickname is "the Indian." He got it after being praised by his former coach, Hans Meyer.

"Hans Meyer said you can't win games if your team consists of too many chiefs," Eberl reminisced. "You need a mix. So I was the Indian on a team of chiefs, and that worked very well."

But can you simultaneously be a team player and a boss who sometimes has to make difficult decisions? Last season, Eberl proved he could.

Pulling the plug

On a run of form that has taken Gladbach as high as first in the table this season, it's easy to forget that earlier this year most people had written the Foals off.

The team had the league's worst defense for much of 2010-11, and by February of this year, they were dead last in the table.

Eberl had begun the year with a well-liked Gladbach veteran, Michael Frontzeck, installed as coach. And he stuck with Frontzeck even as his own job became at risk.

"I think we chose a harder path because we wanted continuity," Eberl says. "But we'd reached a point where it just wasn't viable anymore because we'd lost too much trust. As a sporting director you have to fix that because it's a threat to long-term success - staying in the top flight."

On Valentine's Day, the sports director fired the down-to-earth local lad Frontzeck and hired Swiss tactical mastermind Lucien Favre. The move paid off. Favre whipped Gladbach's sorry back four into shape, and the Foals stayed up after a nervy relegation playoff with Bochum.

Other bosses would probably be quick to credit their own decisiveness for such a comeback. Yet when Eberl looks back at his having handed out a pink slip, his tone is surprisingly sober.

"Football has always had greedy people eyeing up the post of coach or sporting director or even player, wondering how they can get someone or other out of the way so they can take his place," Eberl says.

Taming the Tiger

Eberl is a survivor - something he also showed this year.

With Gladbach fighting for first-division survival, Stefan Effenberg - a star midfielder for the Foals in the 1980s and 90s - launched a bid to take control of the club.

In terms of star power, it was an unequal battle: the charismatic "Tiger," as Effenberg is known, against the mild-mannered Indian.

But Eberl prevailed with ease. At a meeting of club members, only 335 of the 4769 eligible to vote supported Effenberg's initative. The Tiger withdrew, his tail between his legs.

Eberl's low-key, consultative approach worked with Gladbach's members. And he takes the same tack with the team.

"As the head of the sporting branch of a club like this one you need to be able to make decisions," Eberl told Deutsche Welle. "But as always in life, it's better to make decisions after discussing the matter with the team. I'm both a chief and an Indian."

For now, there are no challenges to Eberl's authority looming on the horizon. And if the Foals can stay in the top half of the table, the league's most mild-mannered boss will continue to make his way - without a hard nose or sharp elbows.

Max Eberl was interviewed for DW-TV's Bundesliga Kick Off by Barbara Mohr. The program airs on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Author: Jefferson Chase
Editor: Matt Hermann