The German Bundesliga club FC Augsburg is divorced from the company with head coach Jess Thorup and sports director Marko Jurendic. Sandro Wagner, who will leave the coaching staff of the national coach Julian Nagelsmann in the German national football team in the summer, is the preferred candidate for the empty coaching function.
On Friday, FC Augsburg made the final decision to give up head coach Jess Thorup and sports director Marko Jurendic.
Thorup took his place for the first time on the Fuggerstädter coaching bank in October 2023. He had previously coached the Danish record champions FC Copenhagen, among other things. In 65 competitive matches with FCA, the Scandinavian was an average of 1.32 points per match.
Decision was not “easy”
“We want to thank Jess Thorup for his dedication to FC Augsburg in the past two years. Jess has always fully identified FCA and has stabilized us in the last two years. The decision was anything but easy for us,” is director Michael Ströll quoted in a press release.
The Augsburg team “, however, came to the conclusion after intensive revaluation and discussions” that there should be a change in the position of head coach in the interest of the “development and direction of our club”: “We wish Jess and his family the very best.”
Ströll also justified the separation of sports director Jurendic with the desire for a new direction. After “all aspects weighing up” the club management “came to the conclusion” that they wanted to reorganize their sports management.
Successor candidate Sandro Wagner
The new coach could now be Sandro Wagner, who is recently connected to various clubs. He would have rejected TSG Hoffenheim a few weeks ago.
One thing is certain: he believes that his time has come as a head coach. “With the start of my training of football coach in January, this goal has become increasingly clear to me,” Wagner wrote when announcing his departure from the German football club (DFB).
Will Wagner move to Augsburg? Rolf Vennenbernd/DPA/DPA Picture alliance via AFP
Wagner's head coach experience is limited to one promotion to the 3rd division with SPVGG Unterhaching (2021-23), but he is nevertheless considered a great talent and is also highly regarded by the national coach Nagelsmann. He absolutely misses that he is a coach at the club, Wagner told Der Spiegel: “I am enthusiastic about everything that comes my way.”