After just seven match days, FC Augsburg is the first Bundesliga club to make a coaching change. As the club announced late on Monday evening, Enrico Maaßen will no longer sit on the bench.
A big bang at FC Augsburg: The Fuggerstadt team is parting ways with their head coach Enrico Maaßen “with immediate effect”. The decision was made after “detailed discussions and an assessment of the current sporting situation,” according to a statement from the club.
U23 coach Tobias Strobl will look after the team until a new head coach is hired.
FC Augsburg is in 15th place in the table after seven match days and is therefore close to the relegation zone, having only won one game so far this season. From the last 19 competitive games there have only been two wins. Right at the start of the new season, Maaßen and his team suffered a bitter defeat in the first round of the DFB Cup when they lost to SpVgg Unterhaching (0-2).
“After open discussions with Enrico Maaßen, we came to the conclusion that we need to make a change in the position of head coach. Unfortunately, despite great commitment and intensive work, Enno and the team have not managed to break the trend and achieve the desired development successfully onto the pitch,” said sports director Marinko Jurendic, explaining the move.
“I am of course disappointed with this decision because I am convinced that we would have managed the turnaround together,” said Maaßen, whose contract was actually dated until 2025, in response to the dismissal. At the same time, he was conciliatory: “I am grateful to the FCA and those responsible for giving me the opportunity to work in the Bundesliga and I wish the FCA only the best for the future, especially the foundation that we have laid together have laid leads to success.”
Two successors have already been traded at FC Augsburg
Recently, after the defeats against Freiburg (0:2) and especially against newly promoted SV Darmstadt 98 (1:2), the air had become increasingly thin for the former coach of BVB’s second team. For the 39-year-old, who came from Dortmund in the summer of 2022, it was the first coaching position in the professional sector.
According to “Sky”, there are already two possible successors with whom discussions could now be held during the international break.
Both the former Schalke and Hoffenheim coach André Breitenreiter and Stefan Kuntz, who was recently fired as coach of the Turkish national team, are being traded. Kuntz was also discussed as the successor to Hansi Flick as the new national coach. He won the European Championship twice with the German U21 national team.