In the middle of the promotion struggle
© Imago
The 1. FC Kaiserslautern separated four game days before the end of the season from coach Markus Begin. The FCK announced this on Tuesday evening. The successor will be the former Darmstadt coach Torsten Lieberknecht, who is supposed to lead his first training session on Wednesday.
The office had only taken over at the beginning of the season. His contract with the four -time German champions actually had until the summer of 2026. After three defeats in a row, the red devils fell back to seventh place with 46 points. The gap to a direct ranking is seven points. However, there are only three points to the relegation place.
“The exemption of the coaching team explains the FCK with the impressions of the past few weeks that the team has not fully exploited their potential and did not achieve their maximum performance. After an in-depth analysis, those responsible lack the conviction of counteracting this trend in the current personnel constellation,” said the FCK justification.
According to media reports, an alleged interest of FC Schalke 04 had initially taken care of an obligation in an obligation this summer. The current S04 coach Kees van Wonderen should be in front of the end.
At the beginning it is the third out of a club shortly before the end of the season. Already in April 2019 he had to go three game days before the end at the then leaders 1. FC Köln. In April 2024, Dynamo Dresden came up early. Other coaching stations in his career were Holstein Kiel, Darmstadt 98 and Werder Bremen, where he resigned in November 2021 for the use of a fake vaccination pass during the Corona pandemic.
Lieberknecht had trained Lautern’s league competitor Darmstadt 98 at the beginning of the season. The 51-year-old once led Eintracht Braunschweig to the Bundesliga and could now create the same with the FCK.