This is the 45-year-old’s first head coaching job in the Bundesliga; until the winter break he was coach of SV Stripfing in the 2nd league. A regular round is still on the program. Wegleitner makes his debut on Saturday (5:00 p.m.) at Blau-Weiß Linz, after which Austria will play in the European Cup play-off and in the semi-final against WAC. The Violets lost to Wolfsberg 4-0 at the weekend, followed by relegated Austria Lustenau 2-0.
Austria has been without a win in four games and recently slipped to second place in the qualifying group. Since the points were divided, the “Veilchen” have been the weakest team in the bottom half of the table. In addition to the 43-year-old Wimmer, his assistant Ahmet Koc was also released. On Tuesday (2 p.m.) Austria will hold a press conference in the person of Wegleitner and sports director Jürgen Werner.
Thank you, Michi Wimmer!
Thank you for 100 percent passion from the first to the last day.Austria Vienna has released coach Michael Wimmer and co Ahmet Koç. Assistant coach Christian Wegleitner takes over on an interim basis.
All the best for the future, Michi & Ahmet!#faklive
— FK Austria Vienna (@FKAustriaWien) 13. May 2024
“Team needs new impetus”
Both commented in a broadcast on Monday. “Based on the development in the last few games, we came to the decision that the team needs new impetus in order to achieve our season goal in the play-offs,” said Werner.
GEPA/Armin Rauthner Christian Wegleitner is supposed to lead Austria into the play-off final
Wimmer took over Austria from now WAC coach Manfred Schmid in January 2023. Last season, the 43-year-old German led the Viennese team to fifth place and thus into the Conference League qualification, but missed the main competition. This season the team fell short of expectations. So they didn’t qualify for the championship group, and the trend is clearly pointing downwards with only ten points from the last nine games.
Wegleitner is targeting the play-offs
Overall, Wimmer won 23 of 57 competitive games during his tenure, 16 ended in a draw and 18 were lost. His contract would have run until June 2025, but now it ends a little more than a year earlier. Interim coach Wegleitner ideally has four games in front of him: “We don’t have much time, we’re looking forward and will do everything we can to play the next two games positively. Our goal is to give our fans two additional play-off games through positive results.”
Austria coach since 2000
June 1999 – May 2000: Herbert Prohaska
May 2000 – June 2000: Ernst Baumeister
June 2000 – March 2001: Heinz Hochhauser
March 2001 – August 2001: Arie Haan (NED)
August 2001 – December 2001: Walter Hörmann/Toni Pfeffer
December 2001 – May 2002: Dietmar Constantini
June 2002 – October 2002: Walter Schachner
October 2002 – June 2003: Christoph Daum (GER)
June 2003 – March 2004: Joachim Löw (GER)
March 2004 – May 2005: Günter Kronsteiner (sports manager, with Lars Söndergaard/DEN as “division coach”)
May 2005 – October 2006: Peter Stöger/Frenkie Schinkels (Stöger exclusively sports director from December 2005)
October 2006 – March 2008: Georg Zellhofer
März 2008 – May 2008: Dietmar Constantini
May 2008 – December 2011: Karl Daxbacher
January 2012 – May 2012: Ivica Vastic
June 2012 – June 2013: Peter Stöger
June 2013 – February 2014: Nenad Bjelica (CRO)
February 2014 – May 2014: Herbert Gager
May 2014 – March 2015: Gerald Baumgartner
March 2015 – May 2015: Andreas Ogris (interim)
May 2015 – February 2018: Thorsten Fink (GER)
February 2018 – March 2019: Thomas Letsch (GER)
March 2019 – May 2019: Robert Ibertsberger
May 2019 – July 2020: Christian Ilzer
July 2020 – May 2021: Peter Stöger
May 2021 – December 2022: Manfred Schmid
January 2023 – May 2024: Michael Wimmer (GER)
May 2024: Christian Wegleitner (interim)
