Tracing Max Eberl’s roots

Max Eberl spent 30 years travelling the football world, and now the 50-year-old has returned home to his beloved Bayern as board member for sport. What helped shape Eberl as a young Bayern player? His teammates reminisce in the latest edition of members' magazine ‘51’.

Max Eberl: “Bavarian blood”

Back then, they travelled to games in lederhosen. They came up with it themselves, says Eberl, recalling his teenage years as a youth player at Bayern. “It wasn't an order from above. We just thought, we're all from Munich and the surrounding area, we play for Bayern ... so we'll come to our games in lederhosen too.” That was in the early 1990s, when Eberl, Markus Babbel, Christian Nerlinger and their young teammates travelled around in traditional Bavarian clothing. More than three decades later, Eberl is back where it all began, as board member for sport at Bayern. “There's a lot of Bavarian blood in me,” he said. His heart beat Bayern red from an early age. 

Having grown up in the Munich district of Schwabing from the age of five ("Josephsplatz was my football pitch - it still is"), Eberl was triggered by the red jerseys of FC Bayern during television broadcasts as a young boy, as he recounts. At the age of six, he annoyed his parents until his mum took him to Säbener Straße and asked if her son could train. “The coach reacted as my father had predicted,” Eberl recalls. "He said: 'Everyone here thinks they want to play for Bayern'." His mum wanted to go home again, but the coach said that the young man could join in since he was there. After the session, he was told that he was welcome to come back if he wanted to.

Martin Schmidl smiles when he hears this story. It was very similar for him, only a few years later at U15 level. He, too, first played on a neighbourhood pitch, then at SV Niederroth. And after a teammate transferred to Bayern, he also caught the eye of the Munich giants in a friendly match. He was invited to Säbener Straße for a trial “and was signed up straight away,” he says with a laugh. He later formed the centre midfield with Nerlinger, Babbel played as the sweeper, and Eberl, as a younger player, worked the right flank; together they brought the club its first U17 championship in its history.

FC Bayern, says Nerlinger, “was the greatest thing for all of us back then”. As a child, he used to travel from Forstenried to Munich with his grandfather to watch the training sessions. Six spectators stood around the pitch and head coach Udo Lattek sat comfortably in the café while his players did their laps. One day he was discovered himself - Eberl remembers that Bayern “spent quite a long time working on Christian” - and Nerlinger will never forget how they were given training jackets for the winter: “We wore them with pride.”

They had “extreme cohesion”, says Babbel. “Even as youngsters, this 'Mia san mia' was ingrained in us. If you finished second, it was a season to forget - only first place counted for us too. That's how we grew up.” It was “a wonderful time”, recalls Eberl. The trips to international tournaments all over Europe, from Sicily to Spain and the south of France, brought them closer together when they stayed in bunk beds in youth hostels. “One summer, we won all the tournaments and even beat Real Madrid in a final in Marseille.” He has special memories of that game, he says, “because I scored a goal back then. And I scored with my head - I think that was the only time in my career.”

Matchbox for goals

Schmidl says that the young Max was generally never that good at scoring goals, but he is in fact mistaken. Back at U11 level, before their time together, Eberl was actually the top scorer, and he remembers clearly that he was given a matchbox with 32 pennies. “Max was an incredibly positive guy who never let things get him down,” says Schmidl. “Even as a youngster, he led the way with his performances, took responsibility and spoke his mind - and even when things weren't going well, he was still there. You could already see that he was someone who could make it as a professional.”

They got off to a tremendous start in the greatest success of their teenage years. The route to the final of the 1989 U17 Championship makes spectacularly reading. They beat Homburg 16-0 on aggregate in the round of 16, Mannheim 8-2 over two games in the quarter-finals and Eintracht Frankfurt 5-2 in two legs in the semi-finals. Hertha Zehlendorf awaited them in the final, for whom later Bayern player Robert Kovač was in defence. The venue for the final was Lohhof, on the outskirts of Munich, in front of around 2,000 spectators. It was to be a tough but even match. They all pushed themselves to their limits, recalls Nerlinger. Munich were 1-0 down after 51 minutes, but he equalised with a penalty. The score was still 1-1 after extra-time and the match was decided in a penalty shoot-out. Eberl took responsibility as the second taker and scored. Schmidl converted the decisive penalty to win 5-4. “I hold this U17 title just as highly as the title with the first team,” says Babbel.

The parents witnessed their sons' triumph on the sidelines. “Those were family outings and great travelling groups back then,” recalls Nerlinger. Many of them are still in contact from that time, and there is even a WhatsApp group and a parents' get-together that still exists today. When Eberl became Bayern's new board member for sport, everyone sent congratulations in the chat, Babbel recalls. “Max is now where he belongs, which made us all very happy. I am sure that Bayern will experience successful times with him because he is a good fit as a person and knows what makes the club tick.”

Babbel says that Eberl had already started to look beyond the pitch in his youth. In contrast to other clubs, Bayern initially only reimbursed them for their public transport tickets. So one day, Eberl took heart and negotiated some pocket money with the management - a modest amount, but still. “That was sensational,” says Babbel, “you could see the manager in him.” Uli Hoeneß also acted with foresight during his playing days - one or two parallels between Eberl and the honorary president keep coming to mind. Nerlinger says: “When you start as board member for sport and then the first announcement is that Mathys Tel has extended his contract until 2029, you know you've got the right man in the right place.”

You can read the extended version of this feature in the latest edition of members’ magazine ‘51’