Ten Hag appointed new Leverkusen coach | OneFootball

Erik ten Hag appointed new coach of Bayer Leverkusen

Erik ten Hag has taken over as head coach of Bayer Leverkusen after the former Manchester United manager accepted to fill the role vacated by Bundesliga and DFB Cup-winning boss Xabi Alonso.

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Alonso announced shortly before the end of the 2024/25 season that he would be leaving the club that he led to an unprecedented league and cup double in 2023/24, since joining Real Madrid.

Ten Hag, who has been out of work since being dismissed as Manchester United coach on 28 October 2024, will now step into Alonso's shoes at the BayArena.

Erik ten Hag coached Bayern Munich's reserve team earlier in his career. (2014 Getty Images)

"Leverkusen are one of the best clubs in Germany and also among the European elite," said the 55-year-old Dutchman, who has signed a two-year deal that begins on 1 July. "I've come to Leverkusen to back up the ambitions that have grown in recent years. It's an appealing role to build something in this period of transition and develop an ambitious team."

Ten Hag, a former centre-back who enjoyed a lengthy playing career with a number of teams in the Dutch top flight, coached the Bayern Munich reserve team between 2013 and 2015, winning the Bavarian regional league title.

He then took charge at one of the clubs he played for, Utrecht, guiding them to the Dutch Cup final and into European competition before a hugely successful spell at Ajax.

He won three Eredivisie titles and two KNVB Cups with the Amsterdam giants, whom he also steered to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals in the 2018/19 season, dramatically losing out late on to Tottenham Hotspur.

"We're going for an experienced coach with impressive sporting success in Erik. He and Ajax dominated Dutch football from 2018 to 2022, while he also enjoyed success and proved his class as a coach under sometimes difficult circumstances at Manchester United," said Leverkusen managing director Simon Rolfes.

"Our ideas of football are the same. With technically demanding and dominant football, we want to continue to operate in the Werkself style in the future and strive for the highest goals in the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Champions League."

In April 2022, it was announced Ten Hag would take charge of United at the start of the following season, and he won the EFL Cup, took the team to third in the English Premier League and reached the FA Cup final in his maiden campaign.

He won the latter trophy at the end of a second campaign at Old Trafford that saw the team finish eighth in the league, their lowest position since the 1989/90 season.

Though the club triggered a one-year contract extension that summer, he was removed from his role at Old Trafford with the club 14th in the table after seven games.

The Dutchman's first competitive fixture in charge of the Werkself will be in the DFB Cup first round on 15-18 August. The 2023/24 champions and reigning runners-up then begin their Bundesliga campaign the following weekend.

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