Kim Falkenberg is the latest name to be linked with the vacant sporting director position at AC Milan, and his previous work akes it easy to see why.
La Gazzetta dello Sport write how Falkenberg’s name will mean little or nothing to Milan fans. However, despite being just 36 years old, he is highly esteemed in Germany as the director of the reigning champions Bayer Leverkusen.
He began his career at Leverkusen behind a desk while still playing for Osnabrück. In 2017, after tearing his cruciate ligament, he retired from football, focusing only on the management side. In 2019 he became head of scouting.
Falkenberg spoke about his role: “Describing the players, the team’s tactics, and understanding how this player can help your club is intriguing.” Simon Rolfes – the CEO of Bayer – made him Head of Recruitment and, since the beginning of March, head of football at Leverkusen.
“He has been decisive in the formation of the squads in recent years, therefore in the development of the team and in the successes achieved,” said Rolfes. In practice, Falkenberg is a capable, emerging and fast-growing director, just promoted – three weeks ago – to the role of sporting director.
It is therefore evident that the German club are banking on him. Falkenberg has identified players such as Jeremie Frimpong (signed for €11m from Celtic), Alejandro Grimaldo (signed on a free from Benfica), Victor Boniface and Piero Hincapie.
Leverkusen was always in his destiny. He fell in love with the club at the age of 6 when, accompanied by his father, he watched a match against Werder Bremen at the BayArena. He started playing football coached by his mother, who ran a team for children from disadvantaged families.
Although it was his favourite team, before he went to Leverkusen at the age of 12, his parents wanted to make sure he would get into high school. Only after did they give him the green light.
That’s why, when he was in charge of the youth sector, he gave priority to the fact that the boys gave maximum importance to school. Now he might end up studying again, this time how to fix Milan.
