In the first interview since his resignation as manager of Borussia Mönchengladbach and his time out due to exhaustion, Max Eberl sharply criticized his former club. "Someone spoke up with me who was mentally ill, who was ill - and they don't believe him. That's the problem!" Said the 49-year-old in an interview with the daily newspaper "Welt". He had the impression "as if you didn't really understand what I'm about - and above all: how I'm doing".
He himself was "at peace," added the future sports director of Bundesliga competitor RB Leipzig: "If I come back to the Gladbach stadium at some point, nobody can take away what I did there and what we achieved together. I can look everyone in the eye there. I don't know if they can too."
Above all, the open letter from the Gladbach fan project, in which, among other things, doubts were raised about Eberl's honesty regarding his exhaustion, hit the manager very hard. He can understand the disappointment about his move to RB Leipzig of all places, "but not that I'm accused of lying and theatrical play - and that the club doesn't immediately reject something like that". He is "very disappointed that people I've worked with almost every day for 23 years don't believe me. I can't understand that".
The fact that contact with Gladbach had largely broken off in the meantime "hurt him at first", but ultimately also helped him "to put an end to it", said Eberl: "I worked for years, and when I stopped working, it was over very quickly ."
The former professional also reported on his trips abroad and the psychic journey "to myself". He claimed "professional help" during his time off. "I cried a lot too." At that time he also started to "write a diary. I still do that today".
In August he felt "how football got me hooked again and how strength and energy came back". Eberl does not see the fact that he is now in charge of the RB project, which he himself used to sharply criticize, as a big no-go: "In the end, there is only one person to whom you really have to be accountable, and that is yourself. And I just have it keen to work for Leipzig."
