Christopher Vivell set to join Chelsea as technical director after leaving RB Leipzig

Christopher Vivell was “dismissed” today by RB Leipzig, clearing the way for the 35-year-old to take the Chelsea technical director job, as rumored for the past week.

Vivell’s departure seems less than amicable from the Red Bull flagship, given just a brief statement citing “differing views”. Vivell had been the technical director at Leipzig since 2020 and was the head of scouting at RB Salzburg for several years before then. Leipzig had recently announced the hiring of Max Eberl from Borussia Mönchengladbach, who will be joining them on December 15. Vivell had admitted that the definition of all their roles (including Oliver Minztlaff and Florian Scholz) wasn’t quite clear. As confirmed by today’s statement, Eberl will in fact take over for Vivell.

Whether it was Vivell or Leipzig who motivated this separation is unclear, but it also doesn’t really matter as far as we’re concerned. Vivell’s now set to join as technical director, taking charge of football operations at Chelsea. We’re also looking to hire (or promote) a sporting director, to take charge of “data and recruitment”. Leverkusen’s Tim Steidten has been the most recent leading candidate for that position.