REPORT: Who is Andre Breitenreiter? Huddersfield Town’s new coach

Given that Breitenreiter has never held managerial position in England, he is somewhat of an unknown commodity there. After Jan Siewert and David Wagner, he is the third manager of German descent to have led Huddersfield in the past ten years.

Rather than the latter, who had a short-lived and fruitless tenure at the John Smith’s Stadium, he will be attempting to imitate the former. Considering that there had been little to no conjecture about Breitenreiter’s possible appointment, few anticipated his appearance.

The 50-year-old was chosen over a number of seasoned EFL players in a congested manager market. Here is all the information we currently know about Huddersfield’s new head coach, following their announcement.

Career as a Player

During his playing career, Breitenreiter was a striker and attacking midfielder for teams like Hamburg, Hannover, and Wolfsburg. He later moved down the ranks to play for lesser-known German teams like BV Cloppenburg and Hessen Kassel.

The single trophy of his career was the 1992 DFB-Pokal, which he won with Hannover. At different younger levels, he also represented Germany, but he was unable to make a name for himself at the senior level.

Career as a manager

After completing his playing career at TSV Havelse, he was appointed manager for the first time. After leading the team to a Lower Saxony Cup victory, Breitenreiter was hired by SC Paderborn in 2013.

He guided the team into the Bundesliga and had a successful debut in the top division of Germany. Schalke arrived quickly, but his time was short-lived—he left after finishing in fifth place.

After making his way back to Hannover to assume control at the Veltins Arena, Breitenreiter was promoted once more from the German second division. However, he was fired in 2019 with Hannover facing relegation because he was unable to lead the team after promotion.

After that, he moved to Switzerland in search of fresh pastures, where he helped FC Zurich win the Swiss Super League in 2022. After that, Breitenreiter completed his return to Germany with Hoffenheim, but he was fired in February of last year while the team was in the midst of a relegation struggle.

Style of coaching

Huddersfield has made it clear that they love front-foot play, and Breitenreiter is a coach who knows how to attack. He follows the Gegenpress school of thought, which is followed by managers like David Wagner of the Terriers and Jurgen Klopp of Liverpool.