There was a big bang in the relegation battle at VfL Wolfsburg. Managing director Marcel Schäfer is leaving the club immediately. The backgrounds.
His time in Wolfsburg ends abruptly: Managing Director Marcel Schäfer. IMAGO/regios24
As kicker had already reported in advance, club legend Marcel Schäfer is leaving VfL Wolfsburg. The managing director had already communicated his decision internally, which resulted in his immediate departure. The club confirmed this on Wednesday afternoon. Accordingly, Schäfer will “suspend his duties with immediate effect” and sports director Sebastian Schindzielorz will from now on take care of all sporting matters “in close cooperation with head coach Ralph Hasenhüttl,” according to VfL. RB Leipzig is considered Schäfer’s new employer.
The VfL executive committee has been informed about Schäfer’s plans for a few days, and the manager wanted to clear the way for a new beginning at VfL in the summer. The ex-professional, he ended his active career in 2018 and returned from the USA as sports director, initially working under managing director Jörg Schmadtke, ensuring economic consolidation and simultaneous sporting success. In 2019, the Lower Saxony team moved into the Europa League under coach Bruno Labbadia, and in 2021 they made it into the Champions League under Oliver Glasner.
Since then, things have gone downhill in terms of sport, and even after Schmadtke’s departure and Schäfer’s simultaneous promotion to managing director in February 2023, things were no longer as successful as VfL owner Volkswagen wanted. Participation in the international competition is the goal that was narrowly missed last year as eighth in the table under Niko Kovac; the club is currently involved in a relegation battle with just five points ahead of the relegation place.
In the middle of this phase, the bomb explodes, which leads to Schäfer’s immediate departure. The club icon informed the Wolfsburg supervisory board presidium led by chairman Frank Witter, former VW CFO, that he wanted to give up the post of managing director in order to enable a new start in the summer. At the same time, the manager is said to have received an offer from league rivals RB Leipzig, where Schäfer’s ex-teammate Mario Gomez is pulling the strings as technical director of Red Bull Soccer International. What is common in business is now also happening at VfL: the immediate departure of Schäfer, who will leave Wolfsburg as a club icon despite the sporting imbalance.
From 2007 to 2017 he played 313 games for Lower Saxony, became German champion and cup winner and returned to the sporting management level in 2018 as the face of the club. Not all of his ideas worked out, and yet he brought many things forward and brought with him one thing that no money in the world will be able to buy for Volkswagen when it fills the position of managing director: total identification with the club and the city.
2024-04-10 12:29:16
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