Will not also become a sports director
©IMAGO
Relegation battle instead of retirement: Dieter Hecking has started his mission to stay in the league at VfL Bochum, who are at the bottom of the table. “I want to use all my experience to grab and stabilize the team,” said the 60-year-old when he was introduced on Tuesday. “But it is not necessary for us to degenerate into chatter, but rather to create facts and breathe life back into VfL Bochum.” His contract runs until the end of the season, and according to reports he will earn around 50,000 euros per month – excluding any possible savior bonus.
The new head coach also sees the fact that the Bochum team has recently performed anything but ready for the first league. “The table doesn’t lie and maybe that’s the case at the moment. But whether it’s true or not, it’s up to me to change it,” emphasized Hecking, who has already proven several times that he can master difficult situations. Even if the last full-time coaching activity of the Castrop native, who was sports director until May and interim coach for 14 games at 1. FC Nürnberg in 2023, was some time ago.
After the 2018/2019 season, he was replaced by Marco Rose at Borussia Mönchengladbach. He then tried in vain to lead HSV back into the Bundesliga in the 2019/20 season. In total, Hecking, who won the DFB Cup with VfL Wolfsburg in 2015, was on the sidelines for various clubs a total of 418 times in the Bundesliga alone – by far more often than any other current Bundesliga coach. “I’m a football nut, that’s just how it is.”
But this time the task is more than tricky for the veteran. Bochum only has one point after nine match days. After the separation of coach Peter Zeidler, who was only hired in the summer, there were two bad slaps on the sidelines under interim coach Markus Feldhoff with 0:5 against Bayern Munich and 2:7 at Eintracht Frankfurt. “During the half-time break of the game in Frankfurt, I had to go for a walk and asked myself: Think again whether you really want to do this to yourself?” said Hecking. In the end, however, the anticipation outweighs: “I love challenges. And this is a challenge with an asterisk.”
VfL Bochum: Hecking will not be sports director – Kaenzig comments on Riemann
Recently there has been speculation as to whether Hecking could also take over the vacant position of sports director on a temporary basis. However, this will not happen. “There is no consideration of taking on the position of sports director. As head coach, I have enough to do, and we made that clear in our discussions with Ilja Kaenzig.”
The managing director therefore commented on possible reinforcements in January. “We always thought about things in parallel. We will discuss together what things will look like in terms of personnel and winter transfers. This transfer window can be another chance.” In the summer, Bochum only signed players or loaned players for free. In return, they received 4.8 million euros for the sale of Patrick Osterhage.
Meanwhile, Kaenzig was also asked about the latest rumors that the club was discussing a comeback for the suspended Manuel Riemann, who is also currently suing VfL at the Bochum labor court. A verdict is still pending. According to “Bild”, a return campaign was initially unanimously rejected by the executive board. At the press conference, Kaenzig reacted evasively to the personnel: “We will discuss it again in the run-up to the appointment.” The introduction of the new coach is not the right forum to talk about it.
