Sven Mislintat has set a nationwide topic: namely the classic, whether FC Bayern also owes its success to an ominous “lobby”. But with this provocative statement, the former Dortmund player may be distracting from a much more current topic: namely his delicate contract situation at VfB Stuttgart.
Does the new management of VfB Stuttgart around CEO Alexander Wehrle really want to extend Sven Mislintat’s contract beyond 2023? And if so, are the conditions acceptable for sports director Sven Mislintat? If you summarize the reports, rumors and voices of the past few weeks, the truth should lie somewhere in the middle. Somehow VfB Mislintat wants to keep Mislintat, somehow Mislintat wants to stay at VfB, but neither side seems really happy. The reason may well be that Mislintat is curtailed in his abundance of power. Finally, on Sunday, VfB officially announced that three former professionals would join the club as advisors: world champions Philipp Lahm and Sami Khedira and German champion Christian Gentner.
Regression for Mislintat?
Officially, this action can be sold as the expansion of experience and know-how for the club, but in the shark tank of professional football it is also about power politics and vanity. Sven Mislintat must assume that in future he will have to let even more people have a say in Stuttgart before making decisions. For someone who has fought for more power in recent years and has risen from chief scout in Dortmund to manager in Stuttgart, this may feel like a step backwards in personal development. Most recently, Mislintat had in SWRas a dig at the VfB management: “There have been several good times to talk about a contract extension.” A completion was not reported – and with the general meeting on Sunday yesterday and the announcement of the new trio of consultants, a contract extension should not happen in the near future. It will be interesting to see how Mislintat will react to this change in the club over the next few weeks – but for now Mislintat has gained some time by launching Bayern bashing in the media.
