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(Reuters) – Hertha Berlin have appointed Felix Magath as head coach – their third this season – after Tayfun Korkut’s sacking in a bid to salvage their Bundesliga status, the club said on Sunday.
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Korkut was sacked following a fifth straight Bundesliga loss, with Hertha sinking into the relegation zone in 17th place after their 2-0 defeat to Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday.
In a statement, the club said Magath, 68, had signed a deal that will run until the end of the season. His last coaching role, with Chinese Super League side Shandong Taishan, ended in 2017.
“I had very open and honest discussions with (Hertha sports director) Fredi Bobic,” Magath said. “We are all aware of the current situation, and I’m ready to help Hertha achieve their goal of staying up.
“What’s important right now is that everyone is fully focused on the remaining eight games.”
The arrival of Magath means the club will have had three head coaches in one season. Korkut’s departure came less than four months after he was appointed to replace Pal Dardai, who was also sacked.
Magath, a former West Germany international, scored the only goal as Hamburg SV won the European Cup in 1983 and was a World Cup runner-up with Germany in 1982 and 1986.
His first head coach job was with Hamburg in 1995, after which he coached a string of Bundesliga teams. He joined Bayern Munich in 2004, where he became the first coach to lead the team to back-to-back domestic doubles in 2005 and 2006.
Magath, renowned for his gruelling training methods, then took over Wolfsburg in 2007, leading them to the Bundesliga title in 2009.
“We have been able to find a coach who has proven many times that he has the experience needed in order to make the necessary changes to help us out of the challenging situation we find ourselves in,” Bobic said.
Hertha have failed to win any of their nine league matches in 2022 and have lost seven of them.
Despite receiving a 375 million euro ($409 million) injection from investor Lars Windhorst in recent years, Hertha have continued to struggle in the top flight.
($1 = 0.9169 euros)
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
Soccer-Hertha appoint veteran Magath as head coach after Korkut sacking (msn.com)