Wolfsburg sack coach Kovac after third straight league loss

BERLIN: VfL Wolfsburg fired coach Niko Kovac on Sunday, a day after a 3-1 home loss toAugsburg made it three league defeats in row, sending the Wolves down to 14th in the Bundesliga.

Wolfsburg’s last league win dates back to Dec. 16, and the team have now gone 11 consecutive Bundesliga matches without a victory.

“In our internal review of the defeat against Augsburg and the overall situation, we came to the decision to end our collaboration,” said Wolfsburg managing director Marcel Schaefer. “We regret this development but regard it as necessary to give the team a new impulse, in order to stabilise the situation.”

Kovac, a former Croatia international who also coached Bayern Munich in 2018-19, took over at Wolfsburg ahead of the 2022/23 campaign and led them to an eighth-place finish in his first season in charge.

This season, however, has been anything but successful with the team currently on 25 points, six above the relegation playoff spot. “Of course, I as head coach am particularly disappointed that we haven’t managed to turn things around, despite some promising signs,” Kovac said. “We wish the team, the whole club and its fans all the best for the rest of this season and beyond.”