Dirk Schuster
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Expand German Template:Infobox football biography Eberhard Dirk Schuster (born 29 December 1967) is a German professional football manager, currently in charge of Georgian Erovnuli Liga club Torpedo Kutaisi.
Club career
Schuster, who lived his youth in the East Germany, was one of the first East German players to make the move into the West, starting in Eintracht Braunschweig and soon moving on to Karlsruher SC in 1991, where he established himself as a respected center-back.[1]
A move to 1. FC Köln in 1997 proved less successful, and in the following journeyman years he played in Turkey and Austria.[2] He then played for newly promoted Second Bundesliga club LR Ahlen in 2000, where he had a good stint, before he returned to Austria and then played in the Oberliga, the fourth-highest league with Waldhof.[3]
International career
He was capped three times in the Germany national team and before that four times in the East Germany national team.[4][5] He made his debut for East Germany against the United States in East Berlin in March 1990.[6]
Managerial career
ASV Durlach
Schuster's first coaching job was as interim coach for ASV Durlach between 16 October 2006 and 10 January 2007.[7]
Stuttgarter Kickers
On 30 May 2009, Schuster was named as the new head coach of the Stuttgarter Kickers,[8] where he signed a two-year contract until 30 June 2011, which was prematurely extended on 1 April 2010 until 20 June 2012.[9] He guided Kickers to the Regionalliga Süd title in 2011–12, and promotion to the 3. Liga, but was sacked in November 2012 after going five games without scoring a goal. He was appointed manager of 3. liga side SV Darmstadt 98 a month later. He finished with a record of 55 wins, 35 draws, and 26 losses.[10]
Darmstadt 98
Schuster took over as SV Darmstadt 98 head coach on 28 December 2012.[11] Despite Schuster helping Darmstadt 98 off the bottom of the league, they finished among the relegation places in the 2012–13 season, Schuster's Darmstadt avoided dropping into Germany's fourth tier, the Regionalliga Südwest, thanks to the failure of fierce local rival Kickers Offenbach in obtaining the licence for the new season due to going into administration.
In the following season, to the surprise of all experts, Darmstadt managed to get third in the league which meant a relegation-promotion play-off spot for the 2. Bundesliga. Darmstadt faced Arminia Bielefeld in the play-off and won promotion in dramatic fashion after losing 1–3 at home in the first leg but turning the deficit around in the second leg and scoring the winning 4–2 in the 122nd minute which meant promotion on away goals.
In the following season, Schuster managed to surprise everyone for a second time by finishing 2nd in the league and achieving back-to-back promotion to the Bundesliga after a 33-year absence.
He finished with a record of 53 wins, 43 draws, and 35 losses.[11]
He was later voted German Coach of the Year for his performance in the 2015–16 Bundesliga season.[12]
Augsburg
Schuster took over as manager of FC Augsburg on 2 June 2016;[13] he replaced Markus Weinzierl who left for FC Schalke 04.[13] Schuster was sacked on 14 December 2016.[14]
Return to Darmstadt
On 11 December 2017, Schuster was once again appointed manager of Darmstadt 98, replacing Torsten Frings.[15] He was sacked on 18 February 2019.[16]
Erzgebirge Aue
Schuster was appointed as the new manager of Erzgebirge Aue on 26 August 2019.[17] He left Aue after the 2020–21 season.[18]
1. FC Kaiserslautern
He was named head coach of 1. FC Kaiserslautern on 10 May 2022.[19] In November 2023, he was sacked.[20]
Torpedo Kutaisi
In February 2025, Schuster took charge of Erovnuli Liga club Torpedo Kutaisi on a three-year deal.[21]
Managerial statistics
| Team | From | To | Record | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Stuttgarter Kickers | 30 May 2009[8] | 19 November 2011[10] | [10] | |||||
| Darmstadt 98 | 28 December 2012[11] | 2 June 2016[13] | [11] | |||||
| FC Augsburg | 2 June 2016[13] | 14 December 2016 | [22] | |||||
| Darmstadt 98 | 11 December 2017[15] | 18 February 2019 | [11] | |||||
| Erzgebirge Aue | 26 August 2019 | 30 June 2021 | ||||||
| Kaiserslautern | 10 May 2022 | 30 November 2023 | ||||||
| Total | ||||||||
Honours
As a player
Karlsruhe
- UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1996
- DFB-Pokal runner-up: 1995–96
As a manager
Individual
References
External links
Template:Navboxes Template:Football Manager of the Year (Germany)
- ↑ Was macht eigentlich…? Dirk Schuster Template:Webarchive
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- ↑ Waldhof-Online Infos zu Dirk Schuster
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- ↑ FIFA.com – FIFA Spielerstatistik Dirk SCHUSTER
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- ↑ ASV Durlach Template:Webarchive
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- ↑ Auch Dirk Schuster und Alexander Malchow verlängern ihre Verträge vorzeitig Template:Webarchive
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- Pages with script errors
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- Living people
- 1967 births
- Footballers from Chemnitz
- East German men's footballers
- German men's footballers
- East Germany men's international footballers
- Germany men's international footballers
- Dual internationalists (men's football)
- Men's association football defenders
- DDR-Oberliga players
- Bundesliga players
- Süper Lig players
- Chemnitzer FC players
- FSV Zwickau players
- 1. FC Magdeburg players
- Eintracht Braunschweig players
- Karlsruher SC players
- 1. FC Köln players
- Antalyaspor footballers
- Admira Wacker players
- Rot Weiss Ahlen players
- SV Wilhelmshaven players
- SV Waldhof Mannheim players
- ASV Durlach players
- German football managers
- Bundesliga managers
- 2. Bundesliga managers
- 3. Liga managers
- Stuttgarter Kickers managers
- SV Darmstadt 98 managers
- FC Augsburg managers
- FC Erzgebirge Aue managers
- 1. FC Kaiserslautern managers
- FC Torpedo Kutaisi managers
- German expatriate men's footballers
- German expatriate sportspeople in Turkey
- Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey
- German expatriate sportspeople in Austria
- Expatriate men's footballers in Austria
- Footballers from Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt