1
Max Eberl’s reaction to Vincent Kompany’s collapse carries particular weight given the Bayern Munich executive’s own experience of being forced to step away from professional football for health reasons. Speaking on Saturday after Kompany was admitted to hospital, Bayern’s Board Member for Sport repeatedly stressed that the head coach would be given as much time as necessary to recover.
Eberl explicitly refused to speculate about the medical cause of Friday’s incident, noting that further examinations were still required. He nevertheless reflected more broadly on the danger of continuing to work when the body is signalling that something is wrong.
“If you don’t listen to the quietest signals your body sends you, eventually your body will scream,” Eberl said at Bayern’s pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s Bundesliga showdown against Freiburg. “And that’s what has happened now.”
The 52-year-old described Kompany as an “incredible worker” and suggested that one of Bayern’s responsibilities during his recovery would be to protect the coach from his own instinct to return to work.
“It will be a big task for us to protect him from himself to a certain extent,” Eberl said.
In speaking on the matter, Eberl provided a blatant “verbal echo” with his own experience.
Eberl possesses first-hand experience of stepping away
Those remarks inevitably resonate with Eberl’s own history in German football. In January 2022, Eberl abruptly resigned as Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director after more than two decades with the club as a player and executive. An emotional Eberl told reporters at the time that he was “drained” and “tired” and no longer possessed the energy required to perform the role to the standard he expected of himself.
The decision came despite Eberl having extended his Gladbach contract only 13 months earlier. Rather than immediately seeking another position, he stepped away from professional football entirely. Later that year, Eberl spoke in considerably greater detail about the psychological crisis that had led to his departure.
He revealed that his recovery involved travelling, seeking professional help, reflecting on what had happened, and keeping a personal journal. Only months later did he begin to feel that his energy and desire to work in football were returning.
“In August, I felt like football was firing me up again,” Eberl said at the time.
Eberl subsequently returned to the Bundesliga with RB Leipzig, a decision that generated considerable controversy among sections of the Gladbach support. Some supporters questioned the circumstances of his departure and the severity of the problems that had forced him to step away. Eberl responded particularly strongly to suggestions that his psychological crisis had not been genuine.
“For me, it’s a problem that someone who was psychologically stricken and ill spoke out and wasn’t believed,” he said in late 2022.
Eberl has since spoken even more explicitly about that period. In a 2024 interview with 11Freunde, he described himself as having suffered burnout and said he had reached a point at which he could no longer live or work as he previously had.
“I realised that somewhere along the way I had lost myself, that I was merely fulfilling a role,” Eberl recalled. “I no longer had the strength to get to the bottom of things and papered over the problems with more and more work — even though my body was screaming.”
The wording provides a striking parallel to Eberl’s comments following Kompany’s collapse. More than two years after being forced to listen to those warning signs himself, Eberl is now helping determine how Bayern respond when their head coach’s health demands that football be put aside.
Eberl emphasizes the importance of health over football
Eberl’s own experience provides important context for the language he used following Kompany’s collapse.
“The good news is that he’s stable,” Eberl said on Saturday. “It shows once again that health is the most important thing in life — not football. The most important thing is that the cause is found and that he gets healthy, that he can recover in peace and only comes back when he is fit.”
The Bayern executive said he had spoken with both Kompany and his wife and stressed that the club would not impose an artificial timetable on the 40-year-old’s return. Kompany is expected to remain in hospital for several days while further examinations are completed. Eberl indicated that Bayern are preparing for an absence lasting weeks rather than days.
There is no suggestion that Kompany’s current medical situation and the psychological crisis Eberl experienced in 2022 are directly comparable.
What Eberl does understand first-hand, however, is the point at which the demands of professional football have to become secondary to the health of the individual performing the job. His message on Saturday was therefore unusually simple.
Bayern will continue without Kompany for however long is necessary. Football can wait.
