BERLIN, May 20 — Former Bundesliga champions Werder Bremen have sacked sports director Thomas Eichin five days after securing their Bundesliga spot on the final match of the season, replacing him with former long-time captain Frank Baumann, the club said yesterday.
Werder struggled for yet another season, needing a last-gasp goal to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 on Saturday and make sure of another season of top-tier football, with Frankfurt going into a relegation/promotion playoff with Nuremberg.
“We would like to thank him (Eichin) for his work in the past three years as he contributed greatly towards stabilising the team during a difficult period,” Werder board chairman Marco Bode said in a statement.
“But we had different outlooks in our talks for the sporting future and that ultimately triggered the decision to place the sports direction into other hands.”
Honorary Werder captain and Germany international Baumann retired in 2009 after a decade at the club having won the domestic double in 2004 and the German Cup on his final match in 2009.
He moved into Werder management and was in charge of Werder’s scouting department until 2015 when he took a year out. — Reuters
