VfB Stuttgart appoint Tayfun Korkut as Hannes Wolf's successor
Struggling VfB Stuttgart have appointed Tayfun Korkut as coach following the departure of Hannes Wolf.
Korkut, who has been without a job since his short spell at Bayer Leverkusen last season, has signed an 18-month contract with his hometown club, and will take his first training session on Tuesday.
Wolf was removed on Sunday after the Matchday 20 defeat to Schalke that was Stuttgart’s sixth loss in their last seven league games and saw them drop to within three points of 16th, the relegation/promotion play-off place.
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Korkut, 43, started his playing career with VfB’s neighbours Stuttgarter Kickers before moving to Fenerbahce. He also played for Real Sociedad and Espanyol in Spain as well as other Turkish clubs in Besiktas and Genclerbirligi.
Though born in Germany, he represented Turkey, the country of his family’s origins, at international level, and featured for them at EUROs ’96 and 2000.
Following his playing career, he started coaching at Sociedad’s youth academy, and worked at the same level at Hoffenheim and Stuttgart before becoming assistant coach of Turkey.
He spent two years at Hannover, finishing tenth in the 2013/14 season before losing his job after a 13-game winless streak in the following campaign. He was appointed boss of Bundesliga 2 outfit Kaiserslautern in summer 2016, but asked to be relieved of his duties in December.
After stepping into the role previously held by Roger Schmidt at the BayArena last March, Korkut took Leverkusen to a 12th-placed finish