Bundesliga
Report: Bo Svensson will be new coach of Union Berlin
The Dane Bo Svensson is to become the new coach at 1. FC Union Berlin. Photo
© David Inderlied/dpa
According to a media report, the search for a coach at 1. FC Union Berlin is over. The big favorite is taking over the position.
Since the last-minute rescue from the Bundesliga, the former football professional was considered the preferred candidate of the Berlin club, which recently announced Horst Heldt as the new managing director of professional football. As Sky reported, Svensson and Heldt are said to have met for final talks.
Svensson coached FSV Mainz 05 until 2023 and was already considered a potential successor after Urs Fischer left. Oliver Ruhnert, who will become Union’s chief scout again at his own request, had extremely positive comments about Svensson at the weekend. “Why shouldn’t Bo Svensson fit in with Union? He worked really successfully in Mainz and is an experienced and committed Bundesliga coach. I think that could be a good fit,” said Ruhnert on the TV station Welt TV.
Coaching bench instead of teaching position
Svensson takes over the Köpenick team almost at their sporting low point. After a nerve-wracking season with a long series of defeats, two coaching changes and the Bundesliga rescue at the last minute, the unsettled team lacks self-confidence. The collective unity and will through which the Berliners have left significantly better teams behind them individually in recent years have only rarely been evident in recent times.
The Dane is considered smart, empathetic and someone who questions his own behavior rather than that of his players. After retiring from professional football in 2014, he actually wanted to study and “maybe work as a teacher with young people,” as Svensson once said. But his compatriot Kasper Hjulmand brought him onto the coaching staff of Mainz 05. Ten years later, Svensson has arrived in the capital.