Should succeed Schmid

“Ex” Kühbauer is on the doorstep as WAC coach

Didi Kühbauer was coach at Wolfsberg from 2013 to 2015 and is about to make a comeback.

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

The die has been cast since Thursday morning! The WAC will start the season with a new coach, Manni Schmid is known to be history at the end of the season. Everything now indicates that an ex-coach of Wolfsberg will be his successor: Didi Kühbauer!

Two more games in any case, four at best - that's how long Manni Schmid (53) will still be on the WAC bench. What insiders had been anticipating recently became official yesterday: after a total of 44 league games (plus hopefully three games in the European Cup play-offs), the two managers will part ways at the end of the season - one year before the official contract expires in the summer of 2025! "A separation on good terms", as President Dietmar Riegler and Manni Schmid emphasized in unison yesterday. But a separation! Because: "The situation has been tense recently, we didn't get going for a long time and missed our declared goal for the season - the championship round. But as I said, we parted on good terms," emphasizes Riegler.

Now we know: "forever" means a year and a half! Schmid and Riegler once "clucking" in St. Andrä.

(Bild: f. pessentheiner)

And because he is always a man of clear words and decisions, he made the decision public even before the play-off games. "I simply wanted clarity. There's no point in tackling the squad planning pro forma with the current coach - it has to be done with the new man, of course." He is still keeping this under wraps ("but it could happen soon").

Didi Kühbauer was most recently at LASK until June 2023 and could now return to the Bundesliga.

(Bild: GEPA pictures)

Whereby everything points to it being an "old acquaintance": Rene Poms, once a champion with the WAC Amateurs in the Carinthian League, who has gained a lot of international experience alongside Bjelica in recent years, is one option. . . 

The even hotter tip is Didi Kühbauer (53)! He played 81 league games with the Wolves between September 2013 and November 2015, making WAC the first Carinthian club to become Bundesliga leaders - and leading them to the European Cup for the first time! At the time of his departure, Riegler said: "I can well imagine Didi becoming our coach again." Now the time seems to have come. . .