Bundesliga's "Festive Sack Race": Five Managers Dismissed Before Christmas
The Christmas season offers little mercy in the world of professional football, where the tradition of the "festive sacking" continues to haunt the Bundesliga. Historically, managers like Heiko Herrlich (Leverkusen, 2018) and Tim Walter (Stuttgart, 2019) saw their tenures end just days before the holidays, and this season has proven equally volatile.
So far this term, five Bundesliga head coaches have already lost their jobs. The most rapid departure was Erik ten Hag at Bayer Leverkusen, whose reign lasted only 62 days and two league matches. He was followed by Gerardo Seoane (Gladbach), Sebastian Hoeneß (Wolfsburg), and most recently in December, Sandro Wagner (Augsburg) and Bo Henriksen (Mainz). While their successors hope for a peaceful break, history suggests stability is fleeting.
The case of Bo Svensson highlights this insecurity; the Danish coach has now faced two consecutive New Years without a job despite starting both seasons in charge. After leaving Mainz in late 2023, he joined Union Berlin this summer but was dismissed on December 27, 2024, following a nine-match winless streak. While the current count of five dismissals matches the recent yearly average, it remains shy of the 2005/06 record, when an unprecedented eight Bundesliga clubs changed coaches before the Christmas bells rang.
From:News
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