Coach back in Moscow
©IMAGO
In the midst of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, coach Sandro Schwarz returns to Dinamo Moscow. The former coach of Mainz 05 signed a contract with the Premier League club until 2029. “I am aware that this is difficult for some people to understand from the outside,” said the 47-year-old.
“But for me, personal reasons play a big role, the contact with many friends there, which existed long before the war, has never been broken,” Schwarz told the “German Press Agency”. “I’m not ignoring the war. But first and foremost I’m a coach for a club that means a lot to me.”
The coach had already trained Dinamo from October 2020 to summer 2022 and led them to the Russian Cup final and third place in the league. Despite the start of the war in February 2022, Schwarz initially stayed in Moscow, according to his own statements, out of connection with his players. After the end of the season in the summer, he left the club and took over the then Bundesliga club Hertha BSC. He was released there in April 2023. Schwarz most recently coached the US first division club Red Bull New York.
Schwarz is not the first German coach to take a job in the country after the start of the Russian war of aggression. Former HSV coach Josef Zinnbauer was hired by Lokomotiv Moscow in the summer of 2022, but he was fired after around three months. Last season there were head coaches from Spain and Switzerland in the Premier League.
