Thomas Eichin appointed academy head at Bayer 04

"With the appointment of Thomas Eichin, we want to underline our serious ambitions in the eminently important area of youth development. Bayer 04 stood and stands for outstanding youth work at an international level that is again and again worth examining and developing further," said Simon Rolfes, sporting director at Bayer 04. "Thomas has been able to gain a lot of experience at the highest level as a player and club manager. Beyond that, he shares our ambitious target of raising the Bayer 04 youth set-up to a higher level, modernising it and establishing it nationally and internationally as a leading entity."

Thomas Eichin: "I'm very happy to be able to take up such a responsible role at one of the leading football clubs in Germany. The professionalisation of youth development has always been one of my main duties in all of my management positions to date. Now I'm looking forward to bringing in my ideas and actively being able to help shape the future at Bayer 04. The demands in and around youth development have increased dramatically in recent years, the competition between clubs is severe – that's exactly what attracts me to this job."

Born in Freiburg and holder of an A licence in coaching football, Eichin made a total of 180 Bundesliga appearances between 1985 and 1999, including 174 for Borussia Mönchengladbach. In his management career, he was a director at the ice hockey club Kölner Haie, at Werder Bremen and 1860 Munich between 2001 and 2016. Most recently, Eichin was director of the players agency and Pro7/Sat1 subsidiary SAM Sports in Munich.

Jungheim in new post

With the appointment of Thomas Eichin, the previous head of the academy, Helmut Jungheim, is now in the newly created post of head trainer at the Bayer 04 coaching academy. Rolfes: "We thank Helmut Jungheim very much for his conscientious and professional work as head of the academy. We're convinced he will do an excellent job in his new role with his expertise and experience."