fter missing out on Champions League football, but they’ve already kicked off their summer with the announcement of a new sporting director
Liverpool have confirmed the appointment of Jorg Schmadtke as the club’s new sporting director.
The former goalkeeper will officially begin his new role on Thursday (June 1), subject to the completion of regular work permit formalities, having spent four years in the same role at Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg. Schmadtke will replace the outgoing Julian Ward, who had spent more than a decade working at Melwood and is credited for the star arrivals of Mohamed Salah, Alisson and Virgil van Dijk.
The German, though, is not without his fair share of stellar acquisitions as Daily Star Sport investigate 10 of Schmadtke’s greatest signings at FC Koln, Hannover and Wolfsburg…
READ MORE: Liverpool appoint sporting director who’s already looking to finalise arrivals
Didier Ya Konan – Rosenborg to Hannover
There’s a strong argument to be made that Dider Ya Konan is Jorg Schmadtke’s most successful transfer.
Picked up for a measly £500,000, from Norwegian outfit Rosenborg, the forward recorded nine goals in his debut season as Hannover beat the drop on the final day of the league campaign.
The Ivory Coast international went on to become Hannover’s fourth highest-scoring player in the club’s Bundesliga history, bagging 40 goals in 131 appearances for the top-flight strugglers.
Anthony Modeste – Hoffenheim to FC Koln
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Anthony Modeste endured a torrid spell at Blackburn Rovers towards the back end of the 2011/12 season, where he managed more red cards than goals across his nine Premier League outings, but Schmadtke saw enough promise in the forward to persuade Koln manager Peter Stoger into handing him a four-year contract.
The Frenchman rewarded his new employers by netting a hat trick on his competitive debut, his first goal coming after just 45 seconds. He ended his first spell at the Bundesliga side with 45 goals in 73 appearances.
Lars Stindl – Karlsruher to Hannover
Lower Saxony, racking up over 150 appearances.
He later rejected a move to Anfield in favour of joining Borussia Monchengladbach upon the expiration of his contract. Now aged 34, the 11-capped German international will leave the Foals at the end of the current campaign.
Wout Weghorst – AZ Alkmaar to Wolfsburg
Despite an atrocious spell at Manchester United, in which he failed to bag a single goal in 17 Premier League appearances, beforehand Wout Weghorst was tearing up the Bundesliga on a weekly basis.
The League Cup winner averaged just shy of a goal every other game during his three-and-a-half-year stay at the Volkswagen Arena, scoring 70 goals in 144 games.
Weghorst was signed by Schmadtke from AZ Alkmaar for £10m and made Wolfsburg a tidy profit when he was sold to Burnley for £12m.
Mame Biram Diouf – Man Utd to Hannover
Yet another forward who was unable to hack it on loan at Ewood Park, Mame Biram Diouf was plucked from Man Utd in the 2012 January transfer window.
Diouf scored the only goal of the Europa League round of 16 second leg as Hannover defeated Club Brugge 3-1. He also netted home and away as Atletico Madrid triumphed in the quarter-final stage.
The forward spent two-and-a-half seasons on the books at Hannover, rattling home 35 goals in 71 showings, before returning to the Premier League with Stoke City.
Maxence Lacroix – Sochaux to Wolfsburg
A peripheral figure in the French second division, many eyebrows were raised when Schmadtke persuaded Wolfsburg to hand out a four-year deal to Maxence Lacroix in the summer of 2020.
The centre-back has since become a mainstay in the backline of one of the Bundesliga’s meanest defences. Now aged 23, the France U21 international was an attempted signing by RB Leipzig two years ago. Relegated duo Leicester City and Southampton also hold a firm interest.
Ron-Robert Zieler – Manchester United to Hannover
Ron-Robert Zieler saw his path blocked to the Man Utd first team by Edwin van der Sar, Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak in the summer of 2010, opting to leave for pastures new and the promise of regular football.
Schmadtke persuaded the goalkeeper that Hannover was the ideal home for him to further his development and, barring a three-year stint away from the club at Leicester and Stuttgart, he remains there to this day.
Zieler was handed the captain’s armband in 2015, before his departure to the King Power, and he resumed the role shortly after his return.
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