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Oliver Glasner to take over as VfL Wolfsburg head coach

VfL Wolfsburg

German Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg will have an Austrian in the dugout from the start of the 2019/20 season after confirming the appointment of Oliver Glasner as the successor to Bruno Labbadia. The 44-year-old, who has signed a three-year contract until 2022, will join the Wolves from Austrian side LASK Linz, who are currently second behind RB Salzburg in the Bundesliga and on course for a UEFA Champions League qualifying spot.

“We’ve been interested in Oliver Glasner for a long time and have followed his impressive work at Linz closely,” said VfL managing director Jörg Schmadtke. “Our conversations with him have confirmed the positive impression we already had and assured us that he’s the right choice to lead VfL Wolfsburg through this next stage of development. We’re getting a highly qualified coach and a real team player,” added Schmadtke.

The job at VfL Wolfsburg will be Salzburg-born Glasner’s first job abroad. “The move to the German Bundesliga is a big challenge, and one which I’m very much looking forward to and very happy to take on,” he commented. “In my discussions with Jörg Schmadtke and Marcel Schäfer, we quickly realised we had the same ideas about how to bring successful and attractive football to VfL over the coming years. As well as that, the facilities at Wolfsburg are excellent, so it was soon clear to me that I wanted to take on this challenge,” continued Glasner, who is able to move to the Wolves thanks to a withdrawal clause. “I’m very grateful to LASK for the past years and for allowing me to develop myself as a coach and work at a top level. I’ll only take positive memories from this time and I can promise that I will give everything in the time left to achieve our objectives.”

The former centre-back spent most of his playing career at SV Ried and also had a spell at LASK. After working as an assistant coach at RB Salzburg, he had a one year-stint as SV Ried coach before moving to LASK in 2015 in a dual role of head coach and sporting director. He led the Linz club back to the top flight in 2017 and then guided them to a fourth-place finish in the first year before reaching the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League.