Only four wins, relegation threatened
Austria club Altach fires World Cup hero Miro Klose
3/20/2023 5:02 p.m
Miroslav Klose imagined his first coaching position very differently. After only 22 games, he was released in Austria at the bottom of the table Altach. The club is threatened with relegation. The club thanks him, saying he always gave his all. But that wasn’t enough.
Miroslav Klose has been relieved of his coaching position at the Austrian Bundesliga club SCR Altach with immediate effect. The decision came as a surprise after the 2014 World Champion and his team had drawn a remarkable 1-1 draw at reigning champions RB Salzburg on Sunday. Klose took over the club from Vorarlberg at the beginning of the season, it was his first position as head coach of a professional team.
Altach ended the so-called basic round of the first Austrian Bundesliga as the bottom of the table and after the points have now been halved with eight points in the relegation of the six worst clubs. “In the course of our analysis, we came to the decision that the team needed a new impetus to achieve our goal of staying in the league, to which we subordinate everything else,” said sporting director Georg Festetics.
Just four wins in 22 games is not enough
A successor to Klose, who previously worked at Bayern Munich as an assistant to the current national coach Hansi Flick and in the junior division of the record champions, is to be presented during the week. Altach’s managing director Christoph Längle emphasized that Klose “gave everything from the first to the last day, and it was a huge experience to have seen him as a coach and, above all, as a person in Altach.” However, staying in the class is above all.
In the 22 games of the regular season, Klose only managed four victories with the outsider club. After the points were halved, however, the club is only separated by one point from SV Ried as the penultimate in the relegation round – only the bottom of the table is relegated. Sports director Festetics emphasized that Klose had “all the prerequisites to celebrate great success as a coach”.