By Ben McFadyean.
Bayern Munich will hire Nils Schmadtke as their new chief scout, replacing Markus Pilawa who left the club earlier in the week, according to Bundesliga journalist Florian Plettenberg.
Schmadtke was most recently sporting director at Gladbach until July 2024 and before that was head of scouting at VfL Wolfsburg from 2020 to 2023.
Pilawa’s departure may not come as a surprise after the appointment of new managing director Max Eberl who joined from Borussia Moenchengladbach in February.
Concerns have also been rising about recruitment costs in the past two seasons, with ongoing doubts about the transfer of Min Jae Kim who joined from Napoli for €50m but only made 25 appearances for the club in the past season.
The loss-making transfer of Netherlands international Matthijs de Ligt has also been questioned. The Dutch defender was brought in from Juventus for €67m but sold on to Manchester United this summer with the club making a €12m loss on the sale.
The transfer was also highly unpopular with the fans, and a petition against the sale gained the support of over 60,000 supporters.
The Bochum-born head scout was also undermined by the departure of former Sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic who originally hired Pilawa and was sacked last May.
The appointment had been controversial from the outset. The former VfL Bochum talent scout was head-hunted from Borussia Dortmund two days before the start of the 22/23 season.
BVB is well-known for its world-class talent scouting department and letting the Bochum-born leading talent scout go to the main rival was a big setback to the club then. Pilawa had been with the club since 2012 and was promoted to head scout in 2017.
The 47-year-old is credited with identifying some of BVB’s top talents of the last decade including Jadon Sancho, Jude Bellingham, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Ousmane Dembele, and Gio Reyna.
The timing of the departure just one month into the season will be regarded by many as ominous but is another change in the senior management of the Rekordmeister with Jan-Christian Dreesen replacing former Goalkeeper Oliver Kahn as CEO and Christoph Freund being brought in from RB Salzburg as sporting director both in the last season.
Nils Schmadtke is the son of Jörg Schmadtke, who recently had a spell as director of football at Liverpool FC.
Nils is expected to sign a two-year contract at Bayern.
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