As expected, Dieter Hecking is taking over VfL Bochum. The relegation-threatened Bundesliga team confirmed this on Monday afternoon.
As the Revierklub announced, the 60-year-old on Castroper Straße will receive a contract until the end of the season. Hecking succeeds interim coach Markus Feldhoff at VfL Bochum, who most recently looked after the team together with Murat Ural. The duo, in turn, replaced Peter Zeidler, who had to resign after a disastrous start to the season.
VfL expressed a “big thank you” to Feldhoff in its message. The club “appreciates it enormously” that the ex-professional agreed to take responsibility “in an extremely difficult situation”.
Now Hecking has to pull the coals out of the fire in Bochum – a Herculean task. VfL only got one point from the first nine league games – the worst record for a team at that point in the entire history of the Bundesliga.
Most recently there was a 2:7 defeat for VfL at Eintracht Frankfurt, before that a 0:5 defeat against FC Bayern. There was no sign of an upward trend under Feldhoff.
Hecking, in turn, no longer worked as a coach and instead worked as sports director at second division club 1. FC Nürnberg. He was released there last May.
Experience of 418 Bundesliga games for VfL Bochum
Nevertheless, he brings a lot of experience on the bench. Hecking has been responsible on the sidelines in 418 Bundesliga games so far in his career, looking after clubs such as Borussia Mönchengladbach, Nuremberg and Hannover 96.
However, he celebrated his greatest successes as head coach with VfL Wolfsburg. In 2015, he first won the DFB Cup with the Lower Saxony team in the final against Borussia Dortmund, and later the Supercup in a duel with FC Bayern.
Hecking will take his place in the VfL Bochum coaching bench for the first time on Saturday. Then double winner Bayer Leverkusen will be visiting the Ruhrstadion from 3:30 p.m.
Source: www.sport.de
