1. FC Union Berlin has got its preferred candidate for the coaching position. Bo Svensson should bring stability back to Köpenick. There are a few tasks waiting for the Dane.
1. FC Union quickly created clarity in the sporting leadership positions. With Bo Svensson as coach, the Köpenickers want to find their way back to their old strength in their sixth year in the Bundesliga. As the Iron Men announced, the 44-year-old Dane succeeds Nenad Bjelica, who was released shortly before the end of the season, and interim coach Marco Grote. The pay-TV broadcaster Sky had previously reported on the agreement between the Köpenick team and the former Mainz team.
“In close consultation with Oliver Ruhnert and Horst Heldt, we have decided to make a sporting fresh start in the summer and are convinced that Bo Svensson is a coach who is a good fit for our club,” said President Dirk Zingler in a statement from Union. As usual, the Berlin club did not provide any information about the length of the contract.
“The solidarity that Union exudes, the unity between the team, fans, employees and club management, is a very important factor,” said the coach himself. “I am looking forward to the road ahead and will do everything I can to ensure that we have a successful season.”
It was only on Tuesday, three days after the club had stayed in the league, that the Iron Ones presented Heldt as their new manager of professional football. Like Svensson, the official will not start his new job until July, but is already involved in all planning. His first official act with the Berlin club was not long in coming.
Coaching bench instead of teaching position
Svensson takes over the Köpenick team just one year after qualifying for the Champions League, almost at a sporting low point. After a nerve-wracking season with a series of defeats, two coaching changes and the Bundesliga rescue at the last minute, the unsettled team lacks self-confidence. The collective unity and will through which the Berliners have left significantly better teams behind them individually in recent years have only rarely been evident in recent times.
The Dane is considered smart, empathetic and someone who questions his own behavior rather than that of his players. After retiring from professional football in 2014, he actually wanted to study and “maybe work as a teacher with young people,” as Svensson once reported. But his compatriot Kasper Hjulmand brought him into the coaching staff at Mainz 05, where he was head coach between 2021 and 2023.
Urs Fischer’s footsteps are huge
He now has time until the Bundesliga starts at the end of August to close the Berlin construction sites together with sports director Heldt and to reinstill the lost virtues in his team.
Union will want to reduce and reduce the price of its comparatively expensive squad, as the club will not be playing internationally next season for the first time in three years. Unlike last year, personnel planning should be completed as early as possible.
Svensson will be in demand as a mental coach and psychologist in his first few weeks. The Scandinavian was also considered Union’s dream coach because of his human and emotional nature.
After a lot of coaching turmoil last season, Union finally needs some consistency on the sidelines again. The shoes that Urs Fischer left behind last November after more than five years are still huge. Bjelica was not able to fill them in his five-month term in office. Interim coach Grote certainly wasn’t able to in his short time in charge.
Source: Stern
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