National player Kevin Schade (21) has parted ways with his advisor Maik Barthel. The reason for this is apparently Barthel’s comments about Union Berlin’s assistant coach Marie-Louise Eta
“I have parted ways with my advisor because I absolutely do not share his attitude and his ideas and I cannot accept them,” Schade told Sky. “I stand for openness, equality and diversity and that’s how I want to feel represented.”
The 21-year-old, who transferred from SC Freiburg to FC Brentford last winter and has been out of action for almost two months due to adductor surgery, is thus drawing the consequences of a post by his advisor Barthel on the platform X, which refers to Marie-Louise Eta, who is currently interim co-coach of Union Berlin.
After Union had promoted Eta to become the first female assistant coach in Bundesliga history, Barthel had commented: “An assistant coach has to be in the team’s dressing room sometimes? Please don’t expose German soccer to ridicule. It’s enough that the team hierarchy has been completely destroyed with the transfers. There’s no need for any other stories right now.”
The post was subsequently sharply criticized. Barthel then deleted it and wrote instead: “I have to rephrase it. Making a female assistant coach an issue will not help 1. FC Union Berlin to put the destroyed team hierarchy back in order. “
Barthel is the owner of “Eurosports Management GmbH”, which represents U-21 international Maximilian Beier, among others. Until 2020, Robert Lewandowski was also one of his clients. In this role, Barthel arranged the Pole’s move from Borussia Dortmund to FC Bayern in 2014, among other things.
It is not known whether Schade, who played in three international matches for the German national team at the start of the year, already has a new advisor.
