Updated: 23 May 2026 21:50 BST |
8 min read
Fortuna Dusseldorf’s dramatic relegation to the third tier of German football marks the latest episode in former Arsenal recruitment chief Sven Mislintat’s incredible fall from grace.
Football is a funny old business. You can go from hero to pariah in a remarkably short period of time, and this is exactly what has happened to the 53-year-old. Not even a decade ago, Mislintat was one of the most sought-after people in the business.
He had spent 11 years honing his skills at Borussia Dortmund, working his way up from analyst to chief scout, ultimately culminating in his promotion to managing director of the club’s entire football department.
His talent identification skills earned him the nickname “Diamond Eye.” Jurgen Klopp was the poster boy of that Dortmund era, but it was Mislintat who recommended the players that would ultimately help the manager upend Bayern’s Bundesliga dominance.
The stories of Mislintat unearthing Robert Lewandowski and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are well known at this point. They were retold ad nauseam when he earned his move to Arsenal in December 2017 to become the Gunners’ head of recruitment.
Mislintat’s shocking decline
Arsenal fans don’t have fond memories of the Mislintat era. In his first window, he brought Aubameyang with him to North London – for €63.8 million – and oversaw the disastrous swap deal with Man Utd that saw Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan trade places.
He also signed Konstantinos Mavropanos. That following summer, he tied up big-money deals for Lucas Torreira, Bernd Leno and Sokratis. He added Matteo Guendouzi and Stephan Lichtsteiner, too.
After loaning Denis Suarez (Remember him? No, you don’t!) in January 2019, he resigned due to an internal power struggle, which would become a common theme for him. He returned to Germany and became VfB Stuttgart’s sporting director.
He managed to rebuild his reputation in the more modest environment of Swabia. He pulled off some smart deals for what was then a Bundesliga yo-yo club and certainly deserves at least some of the credit for the club’s success in recent years.
Some of his signings are key players for the club today and have helped Stuttgart finish runners-up in the Bundesliga, qualify for the Champions League and win the DFB-Pokal. However, he did not have a hand in appointing beloved coach Sebastian Hoeness in early 2023.
That is because he had left in acrimony a few months earlier. His contract was terminated in November 2022 after he refused to sign an extension that, according to the club, represented “fair market value.”
In May 2023, he joined Dutch giants Ajax as sporting director. By the end of September, he was gone again. He was sacked after four months and faced a legal probe into alleged conflicts of interest after signing players affiliated with one of his business partners.
Following the news of Ajax’s investigation, Stuttgart launched their own to cover all bases. Mislintat became persona non grata. The Amsterdam club claimed that his sacking was unrelated to the legal issues, and this wasn’t just hollow rhetoric.
Even without the outside noise, Mislintat wouldn’t have lasted long. The German had lost all touch with the financial reality that the Eredivisie giants were operating in, according to FootballTransfers’ Ajax expert Dylan ter Laak.
“When Sven Mislintat got appointed, there were some expectations,” Ter Laak explained. “As a scout, Mislintat had already proven himself. Fans were hoping he’d be able to do the same at Ajax. However, it soon became clear that Mislintat was doing questionable deals.
“He bought players who had barely proven themselves for millions. Carlos Forbs is one example. He hadn’t even played for the Manchester City first team, but was bought for €14m. In total, he spent over €100m, and he also gave the new players unreasonable salaries. Ajax are still trying to recover from it to this day.
“There was also a huge issue between him and new coach Maurice Steijn. Mislintat disregarded Steijn’s wishes and bought players on his own. This angered Steijn and resulted in public outbursts directed at the players. Both Steijn and Mislintat seemed close to being fired.
“Ultimately, Mislintat got sacked first after a suspended game against Feyenoord. His position had become untenable, and the Ajax board had no choice but to part with Mislintat. Steijn got fired in the same season.
“To this day, people still talk about Mislintat at Ajax. The financial impact of his tenure is still discernible: Ajax have to operate on a reduced budget and need to sell players first, before they can sign new ones.”
Mislintat’s new low
After keeping his head down for almost a year, he returned to the familiar surroundings of Dortmund as technical director. He lasted less than a year because he did not see eye to eye with other senior figures at the club.
Mislintat reportedly had a tense relationship with sporting director Sebastian Kehl and CEO Lars Ricken, with the three often clashing over signings. Again, his position became untenable. There were simply too many cooks spoiling the broth.
After leaving BVB in February 2025, he took on a completely new role in December. He joined ailing Fortuna Dusseldorf as a board member overseeing the club’s sporting operations.
His first order of business – literally on his first day on the job – was to sack sporting director Christian Weber. He then took charge of transfers himself. At the time, Fortuna were in the relegation zone after a period of disastrous mismanagement that preceded Mislintat’s arrival.
In 2023/24, Fortuna reached the semi-final of the DFB-Pokal and narrowly missed out on Bundesliga promotion after losing the playoff to VfL Bochum. They also made international headlines with their “Fortuna For All” campaign, offering free tickets for select games to help fill their massive stadium.
Nobody thought that relegation was a serious threat until everything came crashing down. Last weekend, their demotion to the 3. Liga was confirmed. A fallen giant slumped to a startling new low.
All Fortuna needed to do to stay in the 2. Bundesliga was not to lose to fellow relegation-battlers Greuther Furth by a large margin when they faced each other on the final day. What followed was hard to watch.
Fortuna lost 3-0 – and it could’ve been much worse – after playing as if they were paralysed for 90 minutes. It was a remarkable game of football, but for all the wrong reasons. The players, seemingly only just then realising the gravity of the situation, crumbled under pressure and looked shell-shocked.
Einfach leer und gleichzeitig tut es so unfassbar weh 😢#f95 | 🔴⚪️ https://t.co/1K8UgvkUNz pic.twitter.com/G0iZcUZvMa
— Fortuna Düsseldorf (@f95) May 17, 2026
They slipped into 17th and dropped to the third tier, with coach Alexander Ende (an ironic name!) suffering the ignominy of taking two clubs down in the same season. He started the campaign in charge of rock-bottom Munster.
Ende was hired by Mislintat, who did little to stop the rot at Fortuna. He can’t be blamed for the club’s downfall, but he certainly exacerbated the club’s problems.
Despite being so ruthless with the sacking of Weber, he bizarrely kept struggling coach Markus Anfang in the job way longer than he should have. Ende came in way too late to steady the ship.
Despite Fortuna lacking funds, Mislintat spent close to €1.5m – a huge outlay given the circumstances – in January on four signings. None of them hit. The club are still trying to fully understand the ramifications of relegation and this expensive winter business.
When the drop was confirmed, Mislinat pompously vowed to stay and drag the club out of the mire. Last night, not even a week later, he was sacked. The board terminated his contract. A massive personnel exodus is likely to follow.
Only seven players reportedly have contracts that are valid for the 3. Liga, meaning that the rest are all free to leave the club. The same thing happened when Arminia Bielefeld suffered successive relegations a few years ago. Only a couple of senior players remained.
Relegation will result in massive revenue shortfalls due to different broadcasting deals. Sky has the rights to the 2. Bundesliga, whereas the 3. Liga is broadcast on Magenta TV. This season, Fortuna reportedly earned €16m in TV revenues. All the 3. Liga clubs, by contrast, made just €1.3m.
The city of Dusseldorf has offered to slash the club’s stadium rent in half next season, but Fortuna will still likely have to take drastic measures. As many as 40 employees could lose their jobs.
Again, Mislintat is not solely to blame for Dusseldorf’s predicament, but it is quite clear at this point that he no longer has the Midas touch of his first Dortmund spell. To quote Jose Mourinho: Mislintat has become a specialist in failure.
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