After bankruptcy in the Conference League
Ex-BVB coach fired from traditional club
November 28, 2025 – 2:27 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
He once coached Cologne and Dortmund in the Bundesliga. At the start of the season, Peter Stöger was hired in Vienna. But this chapter ends after just a few months.
After a sporting decline, the traditional Austrian club Rapid Vienna has drawn conclusions: head coach Peter Stöger and his assistant Thomas Sageder have been released with immediate effect. Stefan Kulovits is taking over as coach for the time being.
“This decision is extremely difficult because I am not the only one who really values Peter Stöger and Thomas Sageder for their expertise and character,” said sports director Markus Katzer. “The developments of the last few weeks make these exemptions necessary.”
In the last twelve competitive games, Rapid suffered eight defeats under the leadership of the 59-year-old native of Vienna. Katzer continued: “We wanted to reverse the trend after the last international break and were very confident that we would succeed, but unfortunately the trend continued downwards both in the home game against GAK and on Thursday in the European Cup in Poland.”
On Thursday, Rapid suffered a bitter 1:4 defeat at Rakow Tschenstochau in the Conference League. It was the fourth defeat in the fourth appearance, which means that the Green-Whites remain at the bottom of the table in the league phase with 36 teams.
Katzer thanked Stöger and Sageder “for their commitment” and wished them “only the best for their future careers.” At the same time, he announced that Kulovits and the support team should receive “every support.”
The 41-year-old had already overseen seven Bundesliga games as interim coach in the spring and secured qualification for the European Cup. He will be supported again by Luka Pavlović.
At the same time, the trainer market is being explored – but without making a hasty decision, says Katzer. The focus is initially on the remaining games of the year.
Stöger worked at 1. FC Köln for four and a half years between summer 2013 and December 2017 and led the “Effzeh” into the Europa League in 2017. Just a few days after his dismissal in Cologne, he took over at Borussia Dortmund for the second half of the 2017/18 season and managed to qualify for the Champions League with BVB.
After a two-year interlude as sports director at Admira Mödling, Stöger returned to the coaching bench at Rapid at the start of the season. He was on the sidelines in a total of 27 competitive games in the league, cup and conference league.