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Ralph Hasenhüttl

Photo: Mark Kerton/dpa

The Austrian Ralph Hasenhüttl is the new coach of the Bundesliga soccer club VfL Wolfsburg.

The club confirmed this after several media outlets had previously reported on the personnel.

VfL initially did not provide any information about the exact contract term, but stated that it was a longer-term contract.

Wolfsburg only parted ways with their previous coach Niko Kovač on Sunday morning after a long sporting crisis.

The day before, VfL lost 3-1 at home against FC Augsburg.

This means that the club is now in acute danger of relegation just a few weeks before the season finale.

Kovač has coached VfL since 2022.

Hasenhüttl has already worked for RB Leipzig and FC Ingolstadt in the Bundesliga and most recently coached FC Southampton in the English Premier League from 2018 to 2022.

The 56-year-old will be officially introduced on Monday and will conduct his first training session with the Wolves on Tuesday.

The media had already reported on Wolfsburg's interest in Hasenhüttl in January.

In addition to his Bundesliga experience, the former Bayern Munich II striker also has many successes as a coach.

He led FC Ingolstadt to the first division in 2015 and RB Leipzig to the Champions League in 2017 as promoted teams.

In the Bundesliga, Wolfsburg will only face Werder Bremen after the international break on March 30th.

Then Hasenhüttl will try to break a negative streak: VfL has not yet won a game in the calendar year and has now been without a win for eleven games.

Wolfsburg is currently only in 14th place in the Bundesliga table.

Hasenhüttl is now supposed to lead VfL out of the relegation zone and then, next season at the latest, pursue the goals that Kovac failed to achieve: a place in an international competition.

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