Chelsea are not the first club that have tried to tempt Christoph Freund away from Red Bull Salzburg. Eintracht Frankfurt considered an approach for the 45-year-old last year. And RB Leipzig – Salzburg's sister club in Germany – was also mooted as a potential destination for the sporting director 12 months ago.
Yet Freund always remained in Austria; his commitment to the club clear. "I don't know what will happen in two, three, four years but my contract runs until 2023," he told Sky a little more than 12 months ago. "Contracts are there to be kept; you should also be a role model.
"I have nothing that is pulling me away from here. The content of the work suits me so well that I don't know anywhere else that I could get such a complete package." Enter new Chelsea co-owner and chairman Todd Boehly, and his fellow co-controlling owners and business partners Behdad Eghbali and Jose E. Feliciano.
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The ownership group has a long-term vision for Chelsea, one in which careful and strategic squad planning and considered player development are crucial. There are few better qualified to oversee such a project than Freund, which is why the Blues have made their move.
football.london understands that after a series of talks which started last month, Freund has agreed to take up the role of sporting director at Stamford Bridge, where he would work alongside new head coach Graham Potter, also recruited to help fulfil Boehly and Eghbali's ambitious plan.
However, no agreement has yet been reached with Salzburg, as confirmed earlier today by managing director Stephan Reiter. He told Sky: "Neither Chelsea nor Christoph Freund spoke to me or the club management about something like that. Christoph recently signed a contract with us until 2026, which applies to him as well as to players, managers or coaches."
Freund's potential departure from Salzburg would bring an end to his 16-year tenure with the Austrian club. He started as a team manager in 2006 following the purchase of the club by Red Bull, moved into a more business-orientated role, and then in 2012 became a 'sports coordinator' following the arrival of Ralf Rangnick as director of football.
It was under Rangnick that Freund's influence grew. He became an important figure in Salzburg's recruitment process and was named sporting director in March 2015 after Rangnick announced he would be returning to the dugout to oversee Leipzig's 2015/16 campaign.
"I hope I can continue it my way. I'm a different person, and I don't want to pretend. I will learn," Freund' told Austrian outlet Laola1 following his appointment. "It's about putting the best possible team on the pitch. It's not about Christoph Freund, it's about further development and that we play football as well as possible and achieve the greatest possible success."
It was under Rangnick that Salzburg established itself as one of the shrewdest clubs in the transfer market. A laser-focused team of scouts identified players between the ages of 16 and 19 that could be signed, given an opportunity to improve and impress, and then moved on for a significant fee.
Sadio Mane was the first household name to go through the process. Plenty more have followed during Freund's time, including Kevin Kampl, Marcel Sabitzer, Naby Keita, Dayot Upamecano, Konrad Laimer, Duje Caleta-Car, Takumi Minamino, and most notably Erling Haaland.
"We work with young players and we sell players who play two or three years in our club and do very well," Freund explained in 2019. "For us, it's important that we speak with young players, their agents and their parents, we can show them a lot of players who come here, not with big names, but now they're playing in big leagues and this is very important for us as a club.
"We want, not want, but we sell the players to give them the opportunity to make the next step to a bigger club and for sure we are very proud."
Given the quality of the players handled by Freund and the inevitable transfer discussions, it's little surprise he has developed relationships with many of his fellow recruitment specialists across the European game. One of those is understood to be Michael Edwards, who often pursued players in the Red Bull group while at Liverpool.
Edwards was approached by Boehly and Eghbali earlier this summer over a recruitment role at Chelsea. However, he turned down their advances, and thus far the 43-year-old has stood firm on his desire to spend a year out of the game after departing from Anfield at the end of last season.
Given the ambitions of Boehly, it's unlikely Freund will be the club's last attempted hire for their recruitment team. Last week at the SALT conference, the Chelsea chairman explained why he felt multi-club ownership would be ideal to develop young players for the Blues first-team squad.
“We’ve talked about having a multi-club model, I would love to continue to build out the footprint," the American billionaire explained. “There are different countries where there are advantages to having a club. Red Bull does a really good job at Leipzig and they’ve got Salzburg, both of which are playing in the Champions League so they’ve figured out how to make that work.
"You also have Man City which has a very big network of clubs. The challenge Chelsea has, when you have 18, 19, 20-year-old stars, you can loan them out to clubs but you hand their development to someone else.
"Our goal is to ensure we show pathways for our young stars to get on to the Chelsea pitch while getting them real game time. The way to do that is through another club in a really competitive league in Europe.”
Given his years in the Red Bull structure, Freund would add a wealth of expertise to such an expansion was it to happen. Although it is worth considering – and being wary of – the pitfalls of trying to recreate a successful model. What worked for Salzburg may not work for Chelsea.
"I identify myself 100% with FC Red Bull Salzburg and the path we have followed for several years," Freund explained earlier this year. "We are a unit on the pitch and also at all the levels of the club, which is an important foundation of our successes in recent years."
It's understood Boehly wanted a new sporting director in place at Chelsea ahead of the World Cup in Qatar, which begins in late November. Should an agreement be struck with Salzburg for Freund, that ambition should become a reality. Then the hard work begins.
football.london understands early discussions have already been held over potential midfield targets for next summer. The long-term situation with Chelsea's goalkeeper situation is also being focused on. And unlike years past, efforts will be made to move players on permanently rather than enter a loan cycle.
Should he arrive as anticipated, Freund would naturally feed into and eventually lead those discussions heading into the January transfer window. Boehly, who acted as interim sporting director in the summer, would take a step back and instead focus on other aspects of the club, something that was always planned once the right people were in place in key positions.
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