New task
Bundesliga assistant coach takes over national team
01/20/2025 – 10:01 p.mReading time: 1 min.
After just over a year in the Bundesliga, Jacob Friis is moving to Finland. A special task awaits the 48-year-old there.
From the south of Germany to the far north of Europe: Assistant coach Jacob Friis from FC Augsburg will be the new head coach of the Finnish national team. The Finnish Football Association announced that a new era in national selection was beginning under the Dane. The 48-year-old’s contract runs until the 2028 European Championships. The aim is to qualify for the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 European Championship.
Friis has been an assistant coach in Augsburg since November 2023. The club wished him every success in his new role and showed understanding for the Dane’s desire to change. “Being able to work as a national coach is something special,” explained Augsburg’s sports director Marinko Jurendić. Friis will be with the Bundesliga club until after the game against Heidenheim this Saturday, then he will move to Finland.
The Finnish national team around Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký and former Schalke player Teemu Pukki had been looked after by Markku Kanerva for the past eight years. Under him, the Nordic country took part in the 2021 European Championship and reached the finals of a World or European Championship for the first time ever. After a disastrous season in the Nations League, Kanerva was sacked in November, after which the football association began looking for a successor. The Finns will start their World Cup qualification in Malta and Lithuania in March.