Bundesliga: Schalke appoint new coach

Bundesliga football club Schalke 04 have appointed a new coach for the coming season, it announced on Thursday.

David Wagner will take over from interim coach Huub Stevens, who was been in the job since Domenico Tedesco left in March. His contract at the Gelsenkirchen club runs until 2022.

The 47-year-old German-American last coached Huddersfield in the English Premier League.

Wagner played for Schalke in the late 1990s, helping win the 1997 UEFA Cup. He later became junior coach at TSG Hoffenheim before taking over Borussia Dortmund's second team for four years. At the end of 2015, he moved to England to join Huddersfield and sensationally led the club into the Premier League in 2017.

Read more: Bundesliga: Schalke can still salvage sorry season

He resigned at the beginning of 2019, when the club was in last place.

"We are delighted to have recruited David Wagner, a coach who perfectly matches our requirements profile," said sports director Jochen Schneider.

Schneider said Wagner shapes football in such a way "that the team takes the reins of action into its own hands, running intensively, with as much speed as possible." But he is "also one who can mold a team with his personality and improve players individually."

Last Sunday Schalke narrowly kept itself in the top league with a 0-0 draw against Augsburg, before the team celebrated a surprising 4-2 victory over Borussia Dortmund.

"Wagner said the chance to help Schalke develop and improve was "the biggest motivation for me to return to the Bundesliga."

aw/jm (dpa, SID)

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