Sven Mislintat’s statements in an interview have caused irritation at VfB Stuttgart. The main issue is his role in the search for a sporting director.
Sven Mislintat fears for his place on the bench at VfB Stuttgart. Because he was in domestic isolation during the 2-1 defeat to Mainz and may not yet be able to return on Sunday against Hertha BSC, the sporting director hopes that, in the event of another victory, no one will get the idea out of superstition that “I should now voluntarily go into quarantine instead of letting me back on the bench with them”.
The VfB bosses could certainly smile about this joke in the interview with the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten “ on Monday, but that did not apply to all the statements Mislintat made there. What he had to say about the search for a sporting director at his club is causing new unrest in Stuttgart.
Mislintat wants to protect the “Junge Wilde 2.0 project “
Because Thomas Hitzlsperger will retire as chairman of the board in autumn 2022 at the latest, there will soon be movement in VfB’s boardroom. Mislintat has clear ideas about how things should continue: “What matters to me is that the path that Thomas Hitzlsperger, Markus Rüdt , Thomas Krücken , Pellegrino Matarazzo and I started together and that we would like to continue even after Thomas’ departure is protected. “
Mislintat wants to continue the “Junge Wilde 2.0 project”, as he calls it, with the same freedoms and competences that Hitzlsperger grants him. He positions himself accordingly clearly on the question of a new sports director at VfB: He would prefer “if someone from our group became sports director”, i.e. Rüdt, Krücken or himself – although he again emphasised that this post is not important to him personally. He could also imagine extending his contract as sports director until 2024.
The VfB superiors want to seek talks – but Mislintat is also “irritated “
Mislintat’s declaration that he was not involved in the selection process, that he was not “active” and that he was “no longer communicative” is causing irritation among the VfB superiors.
Those responsible around President and Supervisory Board Chairman Claus Vogt do not want to comment on their squad planner’s rash of moves, but rather seek talks to clear up the irritations. Mislintat, in particular, says he is “irritated” that candidates for the sporting director have already appeared in public – “at a time when things are not going so well in sporting terms, of all things”.
VfB are looking at Chatzialexiou – and Wehrle continues to be a candidate
One name that VfB are indeed looking into is Joti Chatzialexiou (45), who has been active for the DFB since 2003, since 2018 as sporting director of national teams. Adrion still knows him from his time as U-21 national coach (2009 to 2013). Alexander Wehrle (46), the managing director of 1. FC Köln, is still a candidate as the new CEO, to whom Mislintat attests “an exceptionally good job”.
Although the powers and scope of the sporting director are even contractually secured, Mislintat is obviously concerned about whether he can really continue his work under a new, external sporting director as he has done so far and as he has in mind.
