The 29-year-old Fabian Hürzeler is to lead the relegation-threatened Hamburg Kiez club St. Pauli out of the crisis as head coach. The former co-trainer feels ready for the task.

Despite his young age, Fabian Hürzeler feels ready for the task as head coach at second-division football club FC St. Pauli. “I feel it’s a big responsibility, but I feel ready for it,” said the 29-year-old head coach of the Kiezclub and successor to Timo Schultz at his presentation on Thursday. “It’s a fresh start and we see that as an opportunity,” he added. The US-born coach is expected to save the 15th-placed team from relegation.

Hürzeler is the youngest coach in the top three professional leagues in Germany. “I don’t define myself by the situation, but I define myself by what I can convey to the boys in terms of content, performance,” he added. Accordingly, he always has respect for big tasks.

Hürzeler had worked as co-trainer under Schultz, who was released on 6 December. After the separation, he initially took over as interim coach before being presented as the new head coach. At his side, the experienced Peter Nemeth will assist in future. Among other things, the 50-year-old was involved in the Bundesliga promotion at Arminia Bielefeld in the 2019/20 season as co-coach.

Hürzeler had previously met with Nemeth privately and had “a very good exchange”: “Peter has been busy with passing so far, has done a lot of technical units. When it moves into tactics, then I become more active,” said the new head of training, explaining the division of tasks.

As a player-coach (2016 to 2020), Hürzeler led the Bavarian club FC Pipinsried to the Regionalliga twice, he was co-coach of the U18 and U20 at the DFB before moving to FC St. Pauli. The coach, who was born in Houston/Texas, is currently studying for his football teaching licence and is expected to finish in March.