Europa League quarter-finals: West Ham’s German director once brought Wirtz and Frimpong to Bayer

Football Europa League quarter-finals

West Ham’s German director once brought Wirtz and Frimpong to Bayer

As of: 5:34 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes

Tim Steidten, former scout in Bremen and sports manager in Leverkusen

Source: dpa/Harry Langer

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Tim Steidten is the only German technical director in the Premier League. With West Ham United he will now face his former club Bayer Leverkusen in the quarter-finals of the Europa League. Steidten played a big part in his fantastic season.

Tim Steidten is not only the only German technical director in the English Premier League. He is also the first technical director in West Ham United’s history. And the first technical director, with whom veteran coach David Moyes works at the club. The 44-year-old could have chosen an easier entry into the front row of professional football. But Steidten, who started out as a scout for the U8s at Werder Bremen and worked his way up little by little, was looking for a big challenge and is happy on the island.

“I’m euphoric at every game and every training session because I feel like I’m in the right place, in the right league,” he said. Before the season, the previous sports manager at Bayer Leverkusen, who will meet his former club with West Ham in the quarter-finals of the Europa League in the first leg next Thursday (9 p.m., in the WELT live ticker), had two offers from the Premier League. That of West Ham and that of an even more prominent club. “But I would have been one of several directors there,” says Steidten: “I wanted to have overall responsibility. “I wanted to take control myself.” He’s allowed to do that at West Ham.

Not love at first sight: Steidten (left) and coach David Moyes first had to get acquainted

Quelle: picture alliance/empics/Mike Egerton

The situation was still not easy. The Welsh owner David Sullivan (75) was used to making his own decisions about transfers. Team manager Moyes, at 60 the oldest coach in the Premier League, is the same. And then Steidten came along as the first technical director in the club’s history. “It was a stark change for all three,” says Steidten.

Liverpool and Newcastle are said to be interested

The media even spoke of a power struggle. Some believed Moyes or the German would have to go. But Steidten ultimately prevailed with the transfer strategy. “David Moyes – I think – noticed through my transfers that my work has a lot to do with it,” says Steidten: “Conversely, I learned an incredible amount from him in the months with him when it comes to perspectives on football.”

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His reputation on the island is very good; recently Newcastle United and even Liverpool FC are said to have vied for the North German. But Steidten deliberately signed a five-year contract with West Ham. “A squad restructuring is always a four to five year project,” he says.

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In the Europa League he has already met Freiburg four times, and in the quarter-finals on April 11th and 18th, the opponent is now, of all people, former club Bayer. “When the draw was made, I thought: Please not Leverkusen and not Liverpool,” he says: “I would have preferred to meet them in the final.”

He’s still looking forward to seeing you again. And doesn’t worry that, given Bayer’s fantastic season with three possible titles, he may have left a year too early. “Not at all,” he assures: “I’m proud that I was able to contribute to what’s happening right now.”

Steidten brought Wirtz, Andrich and Frimpong to Leverkusen

In Leverkusen between 2019 and 2023, first as head of the scouting department and then as sports manager, he was significantly involved in the transfers of Florian Wirtz, Edmond Tapsoba, Robert Andrich and Jeremie Frimpong, among others. He sees the current Bayer team as favorites against West Ham. “We will give it our all and a lot can happen in two games. But if you look at the squad, they are simply ahead of us,” he says: “After all, it took us four years there to build up this squad.”

Florian Wirtz has developed from a talent to a star in Leverkusen

Source: dpa/Marius Becker

He’s not currently drawn back to the Bundesliga, “but in the long term and if it’s right at some point, it’s of course always interesting,” he says: “I was at Werder for 18 years and could probably have worked there longer. But I also wanted to experience something different and never have to say to myself: I would have done that.” The time in Bremen and Leverkusen was still nice, “but what I experience in England is particularly good for my development .”