Football
Reuters 41d

Wolfsburg hire Hasenhüttl to succeed Kovac as coach

Wolfsburg appointed Ralph Hasenhüttl as coach on Sunday, hours after parting ways with Niko Kovac following Saturday's 3-1 home loss to Augsburg, which was their third league defeat in a row.

Austrian Hasenhüttl, who coached RB Leipzig and Ingolstadt in the Bundesliga before a four-year spell at Southampton in the Premier League until 2022, will officially be presented on Monday.

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Earlier on Sunday, Wolfsburg managing director Marcel Schaefer said a change of coach was needed "to give the team a new impulse, in order to stabilise the situation."

Wolfsburg's last league win dates back to Dec. 16, and the team have now gone 11 consecutive Bundesliga matches without a victory. Saturday's defeat sent the Wolves down to 14th in the league.

"[Hasenhüttl] signed a longer contract with the club and will lead training from Tuesday onwards," Wolfsburg said. The club gave no details on the duration of the deal.

Kovac, a former Croatia international who also coached Bayern Munich in 2018-19, took over at Wolfsburg ahead of the 2022-23 campaign and led them to an eighth-place finish in his first season in charge.

This season, however, has been anything but successful with the team currently on 25 points, six above the relegation playoff spot.

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