Krösche's AC Milan move would bring a proven recruitment model to Milanello
Eintracht Frankfurt's sporting director is reportedly closing in on becoming Milan's new Head of Football, and his record at Leipzig and Frankfurt explains why.
AC Milan are reportedly nearing an agreement to appoint Markus Krösche as their new Head of Football, according to Football Italia. The 45-year-old German executive would arrive with a decade of recruitment experience built across two of the Bundesliga's most financially efficient clubs.
Krösche's path into football administration began on the pitch rather than in a boardroom. He was a holding midfielder by trade, progressing through Werder Bremen's academy before a move to SC Paderborn in 2001 defined the rest of his playing career. He made 356 league appearances for Paderborn, a club record that still stands, before retiring in 2014.
From the dressing room to the boardroom
His transition into coaching and administration followed quickly. Krösche first took charge of Paderborn's reserve side, SC Paderborn II, then spent two seasons as an assistant coach under Roger Schmidt at Bayer Leverkusen, leaving the role once Schmidt departed the club near the close of the 2016-17 campaign.
That exit sent him back to Paderborn, this time as managing director rather than coach. In that post he guided the club through consecutive promotions out of the third tier and into the Bundesliga, only the second time in Paderborn's history it had reached Germany's top flight, per Football Italia.
A recruitment model built on resale value
That achievement opened the door to RB Leipzig, where Krösche served as sporting director for two seasons between 2019 and 2021, before a move to Eintracht Frankfurt in 2021. He remains under contract there until 2028, operating as the club's board member for sport.
The deals struck under his watch at both clubs follow a consistent pattern: identify undervalued attacking talent, often from markets outside the traditional German pipeline, and extract significant margins when those players are eventually sold on.
At Leipzig, Krösche brought in Dani Olmo from Dinamo Zagreb for €34m and later sold him to Barcelona for €61m, while Josko Gvardiol arrived from the same Croatian club for €36m before moving to Manchester City for €90m. Christopher Nkunku's switch from Paris Saint-Germain cost €19.5m and yielded a €60m sale to Chelsea.
Not every deal was built around huge profit margins alone. Ademola Lookman's €18m move from Everton and Lazar Samardzic's €500,000 arrival from Hertha BSC show Krösche was equally willing to make low-cost bets on squad depth, while the €2.5m signing of goalkeeper Josep Martinez from Las Palmas reflects the same approach applied outside the attacking positions where his biggest profits have come.
Frankfurt deals show the pattern repeating
The Frankfurt portfolio tells the same story at a larger scale. Randal Kolo Muani joined on a free transfer from Nantes and was later sold to PSG for €95m. Omar Marmoush arrived from Wolfsburg for nothing and went to Manchester City for €75m. Hugo Ekitike, signed from PSG for €31.5m, was sold to Liverpool for €95m, while Willian Pacho's €13.5m move from Royal Antwerp preceded a €40m exit to PSG.
Taken together, those four sales alone generated well over €200m in combined fees for players who cost Frankfurt a fraction of that in acquisition fees, two of them free transfers. That ratio of outlay to return is the clearest evidence of the operating principle Krösche has applied across both clubs: buy players before their market value is fully recognised, develop them within a system that showcases their strengths, then sell at peak valuation.
The approach is not confined to forwards destined for superclubs. Mario Götze's €4.5m arrival from PSV and Nathaniel Brown's €5.5m move from 1.FC Nuremberg show Krösche has also used the model to add experience and homegrown depth without disrupting the club's overall transfer economics.
For Milan, a club that has leaned heavily on data-informed recruitment and asset trading in recent years, Krösche's track record offers an obvious fit. His signings suggest a bias toward attacking reinforcements bought below market rate and developed for resale, a model that would align closely with the financial framework under which Milan's recruitment department currently operates.
Nothing has been finalised, and Football Italia's report describes the move as Milan closing in on an agreement rather than a completed deal. If it goes through, Krösche would inherit a recruitment department expected to apply the same value-driven logic that turned modest fees at Leipzig and Frankfurt into some of the Bundesliga's biggest sell-on profits.