Broad Rider Succession
The search for a successor for coach André Breitenreiter is in full swing at TSG Hoffenheim and apparently results in one candidate: Ralph Hasenhüttl. The Austrian is currently without a club after his stint at FC Southampton ended in November after around four years at the helm. During the “table football” lists the 55-year-old as one of several candidates, reports “sky“ him as currently the hottest contender for the vacant coaching position.
Update 3:01 p.m.: “table football” and “Picture‘ reported in the afternoon that Pellegrino Matarazzo, who was released from VfB Stuttgart in mid-October, will take up the post at Hoffenheim. The 45-year-old American should be on the TSG coaching bench against Bayer Leverkusen (3:30 p.m.) next Saturday.
Matarazzo has a TSG past: between 2017 and the end of 2019 he worked for six months as head coach of the U17s and then as assistant to Julian Nagelsmann (59 games) and Alfred Schreuder (19 games) before moving to Stuttgart at the turn of the year 2019/20 went. He looked after exactly 100 games for the Swabians, managed to get promoted to the Bundesliga and stay up in the league. However, after a winning streak of nine Bundesliga games earlier this season, he had to leave VfB.
Report: TSG Hoffenheim also spoke to Ralph Hasenhüttl
Positive talks are said to have taken place between Hasenhüttl and TSG, the Austrian could very well imagine working for the Kraichgauers. For him, Hoffenheim would be the third station in Germany, where he was already on the sidelines at FC Ingolstadt (2013-2016) and RB Leipzig (2016-2018) and had successes in each case. While Hasenhüttl celebrated the first and only promotion to the Bundesliga in the club’s history at FCI, he led the “Red Bulls” to the best performance in the German upper house and into the Champions League for the first time in his debut season. He also achieved an average of 1.69 points in 83 games with the Saxons, which is the highest value of his career.
On the other hand, he could not help Southampton to develop steeply and instead stuck mainly in the lower regions of the table. Finishing 16th in his first season was followed by 11th, 15th and 15th again before Hasenhüttl had to leave the “Saints” in November in 18th place in the relegation zone. Despite the manageable sporting performance, Hasenhüttl made a significant contribution to the club with his results during his tenure (…) and also played a key role in the development of our club infrastructure, identity and player squad,” Southampton said in the course of the separation.
As a result, it became quiet around Hasenhüttl, who could now be drawn back to the sidelines. In addition to the former center forward and Matarazzo, Florian Kohfeldt and Domenico Tedesco, who is said to be signing as national coach of Belgium, have also been associated with an engagement with the Kraichgauers. All coaches agree that they are currently without a club. After 19 matchdays, TSG is in 14th place, three points ahead of the relegation rank and has been waiting for a win for ten competitive games.
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