Transfer to Leipzig? Wolfsburg parts ways with head of sport

Bundesliga soccer club VfL Wolfsburg has parted ways with its sporting director Marcel Schäfer with immediate effect. The club made the announcement on Wednesday. According to concurring media reports from "Kicker" and "Wolfsburger Nachrichten", the 39-year-old has received an offer from Bundesliga rivals RB Leipzig.

Schäfer had informed Wolfsburg Supervisory Board Chairman Frank Witter "of his wish to move and the associated premature termination of his existing contract as Managing Director Sport", according to the VfL statement. It was then "agreed in view of all the circumstances that Marcel Schäfer would suspend his duties with immediate effect".

Schäfer was a VfL player from 2007 to 2017 and returned as sporting director in 2018. On February 1, 2023, he was promoted to managing director as Jörg Schmadtke's successor. In Leipzig, the position of managing director has not been filled since Max Eberl left the club last September. Both clubs meet this Saturday in the Bundesliga.