Sports director Marcel Schäfer from VfL Wolfsburg is still covered when it comes to the question of the successor to sports director Jörg Schmadtke, who will be leaving in seven months.
“After such a difficult season, the most important thing is the processes with the new coaching team and the new staff team. Summer preparation and squad planning – that’s our entire focus. Everything else that lies in the future, in January 2023 for example, we will do that discuss in due course,” said the 38-year-old ex-national player in a Sky interview.
Schäfer and Schmadtke have been working together at the Bundesliga soccer club since 2018. The 58-year-old Schmadtke is a member of the management board and will leave the Volkswagen club after his contract expires on January 31, 2023. The long-time VfL professional Schäfer is always traded as the logical successor and the most promising candidate. So far, however, the supervisory board has not made a decision, and Schäfer has never publicly announced that it wants to be promoted to management.
The relationship between the two has not suffered from the sporting problems of the past few months. “We’ve been working together very successfully since 2018 – apart from a difficult last season, in which we got even closer together,” said Schäfer.
According to media reports, when Florian Kohfeldt separated in May, the sports director was in favor of this solution, while Schmadtke initially wanted to continue working with the coach. “I think it’s my responsibility as sporting director at VfL Wolfsburg to give my assessment of certain issues, and I do that – openly, honestly and internally,” said Schäfer. “Final decisions are then up to the management, but that’s how we’ve been doing it since 2018. We sometimes have controversial discussions, but we always come to a joint decision.”