First Danish coach at Bayer 04
© Imago
Bayer Leverkusen has a Danish head coach for the first time in his history. Kasper Hjulmand presented the Werkelf as the successor to Erik Ten Hag, who was only going after two match days. The 53-year-old, who receives a contract until 2027, already knows the Bundesliga from his station at the 1st FSV Mainz 05, in which he was on the sidelines from July 2014 to February 2015. Most recently, he was a national coach Denmark. He gives his Leverkusen debut against Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday evening (8:30 p.m.).
Hjulmand coaches the DBU selection from August 2020 to July 2024 in 54 games and came to a point cut of 1.93. In the European Championship in 2021, which was postponed due to the Corona pandemic, he and his team reached the semi-finals. His last international match was the 0-2 in the European Central Final 2024 against Germany. In January he is said to have rejected a lucrative offer as a national coach of Belgium.
Hjulmand was also on the list at Bayer 04 after the fixed farewell to Success Coach Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid, but at that time ten HAG still took the race. In autumn 2022 he was also an alternative to Alonso and 2021 to its predecessor Gerardo Seoane. It worked in the fourth attempt. The Aalborger was previously without a club, but was available to the Danish Football Association for the new campus. However, a solution was found with the DBU.
As arguments per hjulmand, his experience with world stars, linguistic skills – perfect English and good German – are called empathy and his reputation as human catchers. Especially with the last two points, he could be called a counter -draft to ten HAG, which atmospheric disorders are said to have been fatal. Hjulmand also prefers to play with the 3-4-2-1 system practiced at Bayer 04. In addition to the Mainz Bo Henriksen, he is currently the second Danish head coach in the Bundesliga, and in total it has been nine in history so far.
Votes to Bayer Leverkusen’s commitment from Hjulmand
“We are very happy about the commitment of Kasper Hjulmand, whose work we have followed attention for a long time. For several years, his assistant coach was with the Danish national team, Ismael Camenforte, also active with us. Kasper even recommended that IMAEL was personally known to us in our club and also knows our club in detail in the club. If our team will first develop a clear and dominant style of play.
Fernando Carro, the chairman of the management, said: “In addition to the professionally strong arguments as a trainer, Kasper Hjulmand’s principles of team leadership also convinced us. A newly merged and developmental team like ours needs clear specifications and will benefit from the transparent, communicative and empathetic style of Kasper.”
And Hjulmand is cited with the words: “I have always perceived Bayer 04 as a very well -guided, well -structured and highly ambitious club. This impression has been confirmed in the past few days. It is an award to get such a team. The task is very motivated to be the future of Bayer 04 Leverkusen after exciting successes in the past. design.”
Jaissle, Xavi & Co.: These trainers were traded at Bayer Leverkusen
Most recently, in addition to Hjulmand, the clubless Roger Schmidt, Edin Terzic, Marco Rose, Thiago Motta and Europa-League winner Ver Postecoglou as well as Claudio Giráldez from Celta Vigo and AFC-Champions-League winner Matthias Jaissle from al-Nahli in Saudi Arabia. The latter and ex-BVB coach Terzic had excluded “Sky” because an experienced coach was sought who can quickly produce hierarchies and shape a team and, in the best case, know the Bundesliga and have success. Ex-World Class player Raúl also circulated in Spanish media as an option. According to “Marca” and “Sky”, the first discussions with Barcelona legend Xavi were also held. However, the Spanish newspaper had reported that it immediately canceled and could not currently imagine a return to football. The “picture”, on the other hand, had reported that the 45-year-old was not an issue in Leverkusen.