Arunava about Football A look at football & the world through my eyes!
Related Articles
Planning for the coming season is underway: DFB coach Nico Schneck will take over for SC Freiburg Women head coach Theresa Merk during pregnancy and maternity leave. The 36-year-old will be supported by assistant coach Sebastian Grunert, who joins the club from SV Werder Bremen.
Already at the beginning of March, the sports club and Theresa Merk made the pregnancy of the 34-year-old coach public. During Merk’s absence due to pregnancy and maternity leave, Nico Schneck will take over the main responsibility on the sidelines from July 1, 2024. The 36-year-old holds the A-licence and most recently worked for the German Football Association as assistant coach of the U-16 juniors. After his playing career, Schneck first started as assistant coach to Heiko Herrlich at SSV Jahn Regensburg, where he achieved promotion to Bundesliga 2. Schneck then again coached the Bundesliga team of Bayer 04 Leverkusen under Herrlich, before becoming assistant coach and then head coach of the women’s team of MSV Duisburg after a short break.
“Nico is a very ambitious coach who has shown a lot of passion and commitment at all his stops. We are very pleased that we were able to win him for our team,” says SC department head Birgit Bauer-Schick. “By signing Nico, we want to give Theresa all the time in the world to be able to focus on pregnancy and maternity leave. Nico will lead the team until Theresa and we find a good time to redistribute the responsibility.”
“After my season with the DFB, I decided for myself that I wanted to be on the pitch more regularly again. The discussions with Birgit and Theresa were highly appreciative right from the start and, in addition, the club has a great location with the Dreisam Stadium, which makes it possible to work under absolutely professional conditions,” Nico Schneck is also looking forward to his new task. “I am convinced that we have an exciting starting point for growth and development. From a distance, I find the team to be young, active and very hungry. At all my stations, it has been proven above all that success is only possible together.”
The Sport-Club will also be positioning itself differently in terms of coaching positions: Luca Murdolo and Philo König will end their work as assistant coaches of the Bundesliga women’s team, Sebastian Grunert from SV Werder Bremen will join the coaching team for the coming season. Grunert has been working for Werder since 2016 and has mainly worked in the men’s and women’s youth sector as well as coaching various youth teams. Most recently, the 34-year-old held the job of youth coordinator for women’s football at the Green and Whites.
The SC women’s coaching team is completed by athletic trainer Yuki Shigemura and goalkeeping coach Dominik Bergdorf, who have extended their contracts with the sports club. Daniel Streif and Johannes Blume, who will serve as Head of Athletics and Medicine, will also remain with the SC.
As usual, the contents of the contract were not disclosed.
