Who are the Bundesliga 2 coaches in 2024/25?

Cologne: Gerhard Struber

The task of inspiring Cologne back to the Bundesliga has fallen on the shoulders of the Austrian, who was in charge of FC Red Bull Salzburg last season. The 47-year-old will be seeking to press his way to promotion - his big break was due to a guru of the approach, after all. Struber had been working as an insurance salesman for eight years and coaching his village club, Kuchl, when a friendly encounter against Salzburg impressed Ralf Rangnick, sporting director of both the Austrian club and RB Leipzig at the time, who offered Struber the chance to change profession and work full-time as a coach in the Salzburg youth set-up. Wolfsberg in Austria gave Struber his first job at the top level and spells at Barnsley and New York Red Bulls followed before he became boss of his local side, Salzburg.

Darmstadt: Torsten Lieberknecht

Darmstadt have kept faith with Lieberknecht, a former teammate and roommate of Bundesliga 2 legend Jürgen Klopp, after they finished 18th in the Bundesliga last season and dropped back down immediately to the second tier. Lieberknecht guided the Lillies to promotion in 2023/24, after all, and having achieved the same with Braunschweig back in 2012/13, Darmstadt are clearly hoping he can complete a hat-trick of ascents in the coming season after a busy summer in the transfer market. 

Fortuna Düsseldorf: Daniel Thioune

Keeping faith will be top of the agenda in Dusseldorf too going into 2024/25 - not just for coach Daniel Thioune but also for the players after they agonisingly went within a penalty shoot-out of promotion in the play-off last May. Thioune will aim to inspire his side to go better and finish in the top two this time despite losing Christos Tzolis, the joint-highest scorer in the league last season. Finishing the last campaign on a 14-match unbeaten run certainly provides hope for automatic promotion. Should he achieve it, that would mark the first time the former Osnabrück and Hamburg coach has reached the top flight.

Hamburg: Steffen Baumgart

Baumgart is a man who most Bundesliga followers need no introduction to. The larger-than-life flat cap-wearing former Cologne coach is aiming to be the man to finally break Hamburg's Bundesliga 2 hoodoo and lead the former German and European champions back to the top flight for the first time since 2018. Having led Paderborn to the top flight in 2018/19 and inspired Cologne to the UEFA Conference League, there is every reason to hope that Baumgart's passion can drive Hamburg higher than the fourth-placed finish they claimed last time around and back to the promised land.

Watch: The one-and-only Steffan Baumgart

Karlsruhe: Christian Eichner

Eichner is among the most established coaches in the division, having led Karlsruhe since February 2020. A fifth-placed finish last term marked the closest the 41-year-old has come to repeating his feat in his playing days of 2006/07 in taking KSC into the Bundesliga. Having worked as a youth and assistant coach at the club since 2017, there is no doubting Eichner enjoys the confidence of the hierarchy and fans. 

Hannover: Stefan Leitl

After learning the coaching trade at his final club as a player, Ingolstadt, the biggest achievement on Leitl's CV was gained during his spell at Greuther Fürth as he led the club to promotion from Bundesliga 2 in 2020/21. It was no wonder that Hannover called on his services in summer 2022 as they looked to return to the Bundesliga for the first time since 2019. A sixth-placed finish last season marked a positive step in that direction after they ended 2022/23, Leitl's first season in charge, in tenth.

Paderborn: Lukas Kwasniok

Kwasniok is among the small group of top-level football coaches who did not play the game at a professional level, despite being a promising young player on the books of Karlsruhe and Arminia Bielefeld. After training to be a civil servant, he continued to play in the lower leagues and worked his way from there to eventually make the top in the dugout. OSV Rastatt were the first side he coached, and he spent a further five years at seventh-tier TSV Reichenbach before Karlsruhe gave him a job in their youth ranks. After a spell at Carl Zeiss Jena, taking Saarbrücken into the DFB Cup semi-finals in 2020/21 - the first time a fourth-tier side had ever gone that far - brought him to the attention of Paderborn as a successor to Steffan Baumgart. Three consecutive top-seven Bundesliga 2 finishes seems to offer a solid platform for Paderborn to launch a promotion bid this season.

Greuther Fürth: Alexander Zorniger

A former regional league player, Zorniger was the first and will surely be the last man to swap the Sonnenhof Großaspach dugout for RB Leipzig. That came back in 2012 when Leipzig were a fourth-tier outfit making their way up the divisions, much of which took place under Zorniger, who left them in 2014 as a Bundesliga 2 side. That prompted a few months in charge of Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart in 2015 before spells at Brøndby and Apollon Limassol. Having steered Fürth well clear of relegation danger upon taking charge in October 2022, eighth place last season provides hope that a push for the upper reaches is possible.  

Hertha Berlin: Cristian Fiél

It's all change in the capital as former Nuremberg coach Cristian Fiél succeeds Pál Dárdai in the Olympiastadion dugout. Hertha sporting director Benjamin Weber cited Fiél's fondness for bold attacking football, experience in Bundesliga 2 and record of developing young players as reasons for his appointment. The Old Lady will definitely be hoping for a quick return to the Bundesliga too under the guidance of the man who once spent a season playing for local rivals Union Berlin.

Schalke: Karel Geraerts

Expectation is in no short supply at Schalke, either, with Karel Geraerts tasked with making the former multiple German champions' time in Bundesliga 2 as short as possible when he took charge in October 2023. The former Belgian international was an assistant as Royale Union Saint-Gilloise gained promotion to the top flight and became established as one of the leading lights in their league. Geraerts then took Union to the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals in his single season in charge of them before he moved to Schalke, who are hoping of bouncing back this season after a summer of change.  

Elversberg: Horst Steffen

Steffen is the longest-serving coach of the 18 clubs to start the 2024/25 Bundesliga 2 campaign and will enter his seventh year in charge of Elversberg in October. Given that Elversberg were in the fourth-tier Southwest Regional League when Steffen took charge, there will be no pressure on him in the second season in the second tier in club history. Survival will more than suffice, although given the ascent of tiny Heidenheim under Frank Schmidt there is no harm in dreaming just what can be achieved with the benefits of patience and loyalty. 

Nuremberg: Miroslav Klose

After cutting his teeth in coaching at Bayern Munich and Altach in Austria, former World Cup and Bundesliga winner Klose was a high-profile recruit to the Nuremberg dugout over the summer. His hard work and passion for detail were reasons Nuremberg's head of sport Joti Chatzialexiou gave for his appointment. Having spent nine of the past ten seasons in Bundesliga 2, the former nine-time German champions are entitled to also hope Klose's stardust might spur them back towards the big time. A fine set of pre-season results culminating in a 3-0 win over Juventus has certainly been a promising start.

Kaiserslautern: Markus Anfang

The tradition-rich club and former champions appointed their former player, Anfang, at the end of June to succeed the legendary Friedhelm Funkel. Anfang has pedigree at Bundesliga 2 level, coaching four different sides in the division - Holstein Kiel, Cologne, Darmstadt and Werder Bremen - who always finished in the top eight during seasons under his charge. He left Cologne shortly before the end of the 2018/19 season when they were placed first and ultimately gained promotion. The Red Devils are looking to consolidate in their third year in the second flight after also reaching the DFB Cup Final last season. 

Magdeburg: Christian Titz

Titz reached Bundesliga 2 level as a player for Mannheim, and learned the ropes as a coach at youth, amateur and regional level as well as spending a spell working for the United States Soccer Federation. He worked his way to the Hamburg hot seat in 2018 from the youth ranks, and after a season at Rot-Weiss Essen he took charge of then third-tier Magdeburg in February 2021. Promotion followed in his first full season in charge, 2021/22, and the former UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winners have survived under Titz ever since.

Eintracht Braunschweig: Daniel Scherning

Scherning helped Braunschweig to safety with ten wins in 22 Bundesliga 2 matches after he took the reins last November. Benjamin Kessel, sporting director at Braunschweig, said that the former Arminia Bielefeld and Osnabrück coach came "with a plan and clear solutions he wanted to implement with the team to battle against relegation." He will hope that works just as well in 2024/25. 

Ulm: Thomas Wörle

If it all seems like a bit of a whirl for Ulm fans under Wörle, there is good reason. The club had been no higher than the fourth tier in 20 years when he took charge in 2021. The former Bayern women's coach of nine years took the club to the runners-up spot in their regional league in his first season, 2021/22, then followed that up by marching straight up to the 3. Liga and through that as runaway champions last season.

Preußen Münster: Sascha Hildmann

Hildmann is to face his first season coaching at Bundesliga 2 level after sensationally inspiring Münster to back-to-back promotions from the fourth-tier regional league. He more than rewarded his club's faith in him after he suffered relegation from the 3. Liga in his first campaign in charge, having previously coached Kaiserslautern and Sonnenhof Großaspach at the same level. 

Jahn Regensburg: Joe Enochs

Enoch provides American coaching interest in Bundesliga 2 in 2024/25. The Californian played for San Francisco United All Blacks before a transfer to St. Pauli in 1994 paved the way to a 12-year spell at Osnabrück and a single cap for the US national team in 2001. He coached Osnabrück before spending five years at Zwickau and taking Regensburg to promotion in his first season at the club.