Sports club clarifies coach question
Freiburg makes ex-captain Schuster his successor
March 22, 2024, 10:04 a.m
With the departure of Christian Streich, SC Freiburg is facing upheaval. Long-time captain Julian Schuster is expected to lead this: the Bundesliga club will promote the ex-professional as their new head coach in the summer.
After the Christian Streich era, SC Freiburg is relying on former professional Julian Schuster as its new head coach. The Baden Bundesliga club confirmed that the 38-year-old would be following suit next season. The long-time coach will leave the club in the summer. As usual, the club did not provide any information about the term of Schuster’s contract.
“In the past few weeks, we have intensively discussed several internal and external candidates to succeed Christian Streich. At the end of this process, we decided with great conviction to go the same route with Julian Schuster,” said sports director Jochen Saier. “His specialist knowledge, his personality and his extensive identification with the philosophy and values of SC Freiburg were key criteria for us.”
In mid-May, a success story that has lasted more than twelve years will come to an end for the Baden team with Streich’s farewell. On Monday, the 58-year-old announced that he would end his work with the 2022 DFB Cup finalists at the end of the season and make room for “new energy”. The 58-year-old took over the coaching position with the professionals in January 2012, having previously been a youth coach at the sports club for 17 years. Most recently, Streich reached the round of 16 of the Europa League twice with Freiburg and made it to the cup final in 2022.
For a long time, Schuster was Streich’s extended arm on the field
Schuster is taking on responsibility after being increasingly introduced and involved in the work with the Bundesliga professionals in recent years. Officially he was employed as a liaison trainer between the young talent and the professionals. The former Freiburg midfielder and captain has no experience as a main coach. “For me, coaching at the sports club is both a matter of the heart and a challenge,” explained Schuster. “I am aware of the task and approach it with full conviction, but also with humility and respect.”
In Streich’s early days, the long-time Freiburg professional was an extended arm on the field as captain and acted as an important contact person until the end of his career in 2018. He subsequently switched to coaching and obtained his UEFA Pro license. In ten years, Schuster played 242 competitive games for Freiburg and scored 21 goals.
The novice coach will take over an established Bundesliga club. After the sports club qualified for the Europa League twice in a row in the last two seasons and reached the round of 16, things are not going quite as well this season. In ninth place, the Breisgauers are in the middle of the table ahead of the remaining eight games. As a new assistant, Patrik Grolimund will strengthen the Freiburg coaching team. The 43-year-old will be deputy head of pro license training at the German Football Association until the end of June, the club said.
There has not been a change of coach at SC since the 2011/12 winter break. At that time, Streich was promoted from junior coach to head coach and became the successor to Marcus Sorg. In the fast-moving football business, the people of South Baden are an exception and represent continuity. Volker Finke shaped Freiburg between 1991 and 2007. Frank Schmidt, who has coached 1. FC Heidenheim since September 2007, has the longest tenure in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga.