Wolfsburg (Germany), May 11 (DPA) Germany’s VfL Wolfsburg Tuesday appointed former England manager Steve McLaren coach, the Bundesliga club confirmed.
McLaren, who has just led FC Twente to the club’s first Dutch league title, has agreed a two-year contract with the 2009 Bundesliga champions, the club said.
McLaren, 49, succeeds interim coach Lorenz-Guenther Koestner, who has been in charge at Wolfsburg since the dismissal in January of Armin Veh.
McLaren will take up his appointment July 1 and become the first English coach of a German first-division Bundesliga side. Former England international Tony Woodcock, who had two spells as a player at Cologne, was coach of second-division side VfB Leipzig and later sports director at Eintracht Frankfurt.
It will be the second successive season that the Dutch title-winning coach has then moved to the Bundesliga.
Dutch coach Louis van Gaal – who like McLaren was also a national team coach after an unsuccessful spell in charge of Holland – switched to Bayern Munich after leading AZ Alkmaar to the 2009 Eredivisie title.
Van Gaal has now won the Bundesliga title with Bayern and has taken the team into the finals of the German Cup and Champions League.
rounak