SpVgg Greuther Fürth has reacted to the sporting crisis and, according to media reports, has separated from coach Thomas Kleine. As his successor, Heiko Vogel will start directly with the Frankenderby against 1. FC Nürnberg.
What had already been indicated after the 3-0 defeat against VfL Bochum on Saturday is now a done deal. SpVgg Greuther Fürth releases their coach Thomas Kleine. Kleine’s assistant coaches Milorad Pekovic and Marco Konrad also have to go. Heiko Vogel will be his successor, as the club announced on Monday afternoon.
The cloverleaf has only managed one win from its last nine games in the 2nd Bundesliga and slipped into a relegation zone for the first time this season due to victories from the competition. After only thirteen points after 14 games, the game association is threatened with relegation to the 3rd league. “Now we are in a tricky situation again, but I had the utmost confidence that we would have managed it together again this time,” said Kleine about his dismissal. “Accordingly, I am of course very disappointed and would have liked to continue on this path.”
Little-off after just six months
The 47-year-old Kleine took over the Fürth team as interim coach in May 2025 after Jan Siewert was fired. He celebrated a decent debut with a draw and a win at the end of the season and thus managed to stay in the league with the cloverleaf.
Sports director Stephan Fürstner then hired Kleine as head coach for the new season. After a win at the start of the season against Dresden, the game association was recently spiraling towards the relegation zone, which is why those responsible were forced to act after only 18 games under Kleine.
Fürth is the league’s shooting gallery
After 0:3 against Bochum last Saturday, in which the game association gave up the game in the opening quarter of an hoursports director Fürstner had avoided making a commitment to Kleine. “We all have to ask ourselves whether we are doing everything we can week after week, drawing the right conclusions, training the right things, because things cannot continue like this.” Now it’s no longer possible for Kleine, whose defense was particularly fatal. With 37 goals conceded, Fürth is the league’s shooting gallery.
The successor starts with the Frankenderby
In addition to Kleine, his assistants Milorad Pekovic and Marco Konrad have also been released with immediate effect. Little successor Vogel will make his debut in the Frankenderby against 1. FC Nürnberg next Sunday. “I’m really looking forward to the task at the game association and would like to find the way back to success together with the team,” said Vogel, who has signed a contract until the summer of 2027. The coaching team is completed by Danny Schwarz, who most recently worked as head coach at FC 08 Homburg, and Aleksandro Petrovic, who previously looked after TSV Buchbach.
Source: BR24Sport 12/01/2025 – 1:54 p.m
