VfL Wolfsburg is only five points ahead of the relegation place. A win at the weekend against Augsburg is therefore urgently needed. But the club has to change on the coaching bench.
Head coach Florian Kohfeldt tested positive, his experienced assistant Michael Frontzeck had fresh surgery – now the only 25-year-old Vincent Heilmann has to sit on the bench as the responsible coach in VfL Wolfsburg’s away game at FC Augsburg on Sunday.
He is younger than Julian Nagelsmann on his debut. Today’s Bayern coach was on the bench at the beginning of 2016 at the age of 28. The difference: Nagelsmann was head coach, Heilmann is in charge on Sunday, but continues “only” as an assistant.
The Wolfsburg man didn’t grab the title as the youngest coach either. Bernd Stöber was a year younger when he stepped in in 1976 as an interim coach at the then Bundesliga club 1. FC Saarbrücken for the first and last time as an interim coach.
“We value his content-related expertise”
The experienced Michael Frontzeck was actually intended as a backup for Kohfeldt, but the 58-year-old will be out until the end of the season due to an operation on his face. Sporting director Marcel Schäfer has no doubts about the inexperienced Heilmann: “We appreciate his content-related expertise. Vincent has a clear opinion and he represents it too.”
Heilmann also got the job with the wolves because he had trained the son of ex-coach Mark van Bommel at PSV Eindhoven. The young coach had to end his own career early due to injury.
With a win in Augsburg, Wolfsburg could come a big step closer to staying up. In the event of a defeat, the Fuggerstadt team would be two points behind the “wolves”.