FC Bayern Munich will sign Christoph Freund as the new sporting director. The long-standing manager of the Austrian series champion Red Bull Salzburg will start work on September 1st, the German soccer record champion announced on Tuesday. First the "Bild", the TV broadcaster Sky and the "tz" reported about it. According to Sky, the contracts have already been signed.

The Austrian Freund has been working as a sports director for Salzburg for many years and was courted by top English club FC Chelsea a year ago. At that time, however, the 46-year-old decided to stay with the Austrian champions, where he still has a contract until 2026. Since the separation from sporting director Hasan Salihamidžic, Bayern have been looking for a new manager.

In the gripping championship final at the end of May, the supervisory board around club patron Uli Hoeneß took action: CEO Oliver Kahn had to go, as did sports director Salihamidzic. The long-standing CFO Jan-Christian Dreesen was then promoted to the position of CEO. He was still holding back on Monday when it came to the sports director question. But he had praised the good cooperation with Technical Director Marco Neppe.

Note: This article has been updated. FC Bayern confirmed the personnel in the afternoon.