Union hire old-boy Baumgart as head coach

Union Berlin, on a nine-game winless run, announced Monday they had hired Steffen Baumgart as coach after firing Dane Bo Svensson last week.

Union sit 12th in the Bundesliga, seven points clear of the relegation places, but have failed to win in any competition since October 10.

The 52-year-old German Baumgart will prepare the team for the rest of the Bundesliga season from January 2.

“I’m very much looking forward to returning to the Bundesliga and to Union,” Baumgart told the Union website. 

“It’s certainly an advantage to know the club and many people here well. We don’t have much time to prepare and will work intensively with the players to be prepared for the tasks ahead of us.”

Union return to Bundesliga action after the winter break at Heidenheim on January 11.

Baumgart played 225 Bundesliga games for Hansa Rostock, Wolfsburg and Energie Cottbus between 1995 and 2008. 

He had a two-year spell as a player with Union in the second division from 2002-2004, where he was captain and player of the year. 

His coaching career has already taken him to a dozen clubs, including Cologne in the Bundesliga. He led them to a seventh-place finish in his first season, but was fired in December 2023 after a loss at Union dropped Cologne into the bottom two.

In November, Baumgart was fired by Hamburg, struggling to escape the second division, after a run of five games without a win.