RB Leipzig have fired their sporting director Max Eberl, the club announced on Friday. Though they raised "failure to commit to the club" as the reason behind the decision, the fact that Eberl has been linked to Bayern Munich recently should not be ignored.

"RB Leipzig have relieved Max Eberl of his duties with immediate effect. His failure to commit to the club has led to us making this decision. It has nothing to do with the squad's rebuild or results on the pitch. Sporting director Rouven Schröder will take over. We would like to thank Max for his work and wish him all the best for the future," Leipzig said in statement.

Eberl joined Leipzig in December 2022. The club sold Josko Gvardiol to Manchester City, Dominik Szoboszlai to Liverpool and Christopher Nkunku to Chelsea this summer to make a fortune that boosted Leipzig's rebuild. The German club acquired multiple solid players including Lois Openda from Lens, Castello Lukeba from Olympique Lyon and Christoph Baumgartner from TSG Hoffenheim.

Having finished their first five Bundesliga games with four wins and one loss, Leipzig are currently fifth on the standings table, one point behind the second-placed Bayern and two points behind the leader Borussia Dortmund, which have played six games.

Leipzig will host Bayern at Red Bull Arena on Saturday. The two clubs have played 18 games with each other since 2016. Though Leipzig won only three of them, two of those victories happened this year. One earned the club the DFL-Supercup title in August, the other in May almost cost Bayern the Bundesliga championship last season.

There have been reports about Eberl intending to join Bayern, which fired their sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic together with CEO Oliver Kahn right after they won the Bundesliga title on goal difference last season.

Though Eberl tried to clear the air on Wednesday by saying that he wanted to focus on the game against Bayern when asked about the speculation, Leipzig's top office obviously was not convinced by his remarks.