Eintracht Braunschweig’s promotion coach has a new job

Third division expert

He once rose with Eintracht: ex-BTSV coach has a new job

With Eintracht Braunschweig he celebrated one of the greatest successes of his coaching career. Now Marco Antwerp is once again in demand as a third division expert.

Eintracht Braunschweig fans will remember Marco Antwerp very well. The former BTSV coach never minced words during his tenure in the 3rd league at the Oker and his emotional nature was not always well received. However, success proved him right: in the summer of 2020, promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga was achieved – goal achieved.

What followed came as a surprise to some at first glance. Antwerp had to leave despite promotion. His expiring contract was not extended. “I read that I was offended by my direct nature,” he said looking back in an interview with “transfermarkt.de”. “I grew up in the Ruhr area, where people are perhaps a bit more direct.”

But it was also true that Antwerp’s team wasn’t always convincing in terms of sport. “It’s partly true that we should have played nicer football. But for us it was simply more important to deliver results in order to achieve this success,” Antwerp said at the time.

And so Antwerp had to abandon its role as a promotion coach in Braunschweig. This was followed in the same year by a botched stint at the Würzburger Kickers, where he lost his job after just one point from five second division games.

In any case, the 3rd league turned out to be his absolute comfort zone. When he finally signed with 1. FC Kaiserslautern in February 2021, he first secured relegation and even led the “Red Devils” to promotion relegation the following year.

Then the big bang: FCK canceled him before the playoff games. Dirk Schuster took over for the games against Dynamo Dresden and made promotion with the Palatinate team perfect. Déjà vu for Antwerp: he was successful again in sport, but again he still had to go.

Now his third division expertise is in demand again. After leaving Waldhof Mannheim, where he was responsible from January to September 2024, he joined bottom team VfL Osnabrück.

This task will not be easy: VfL is already eight points behind the 16th place before the 18th matchday. But he has regularly proven in the past that Antwerp is made for exactly such situations. He most recently managed to save himself last season with Waldhof Mannheim. Now this should also be successful in Osnabrück.