The Swabian Thomas Letsch comes from the Dutch first division club Vitesse Arnhem
Source: dpa/Frank Rumpenhorst
A good one and a half weeks after the separation from Thomas Reis, VfL Bochum presented a successor. Thomas Letsch should protect the bottom of the Bundesliga from relegation. It’s completely new territory for him.
Nand it’s official. Thomas Letsch is the new coach of Bundesliga club VfL Bochum. As the bottom of the table announced, the 54-year-old football teacher signed a contract with the Dutch first division club Vitesse Arnhem until 2024.
On Wednesday evening, VfL agreed to pay the transfer fee demanded by Vitesse Arnhem (around 600,000 euros including bonuses). Before that, sports directors Patrick Fabian (VfL) and Benjamin Schmedes (Vitesse) were getting closer and closer in their ideas. The first Bochum offer came at the beginning of the week.
Everything was already clear between Bochum and Swabian Letsch at the weekend. His contract is also valid in the 2nd division. He signed until the summer of 2024, there is no option to extend the contract and there is no exit clause.
VfL Bochum made a historic false start
“Thomas Letsch is our ideal solution for the position of head coach,” commented Bochum’s sporting director Fabian: “He has the necessary experience in professional football and is able to form a team with a clear structure and game idea.”
The Revierkub quickly found what he was looking for in the search for a successor to Thomas Reis, who was released after three years after the historic Bundesliga false start with six defeats in six games and 4:18 goals on September 12th. In the last game against 1. FC Köln (1-1), U19 coach Heiko Butscher took care of the team on an interim basis and still scored the first point.
Letsch looked after the second division club Erzgebirge Aue in 2017, but was quickly put on leave after three defeats in three games. There were different opinions about the desired style of play. After that, the native of Esslinger Austria trained in Vienna and since 2020 in Arnhem. In 2021 he reached the Dutch Cup final, which Arnhem lost 2-1 to Ajax Amsterdam. From 2012 to 2017, Letsch held various positions at RB Salzburg and the farm team FC Liefering for five years. Here he trained, among others, Xaver Schlager (24), Amadou Haidara (24) and Konrad Laimer (25/all Leipzig), Naby Keita (27/Liverpool) and Dayot Upamecano (23/Bayern).
“Our big goal is for VfL Bochum to play in the Bundesliga again next season. We will work very hard for this. The fans have been exceptionally supportive of the team and we will continue to need that support. We will only be successful with cohesion and community,” Letsch said of his upcoming task.
