Talk about a career change: Just over six years ago, Alexander Nouri was on the sidelines as coach of Hertha BSC in Germany; now he works for McDonald’s.

Former Bundesliga coach Alexander Nouri will be focusing on burgers instead of a back four in the future. Starting in early 2026, the former soccer coach of Werder Bremen and Hertha BSC will operate two McDonald’s restaurants in North Rhine-Westphalia, as he told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung.” “I’m not walking in there and saying, ‘I know how this works,’” says Nouri. “I’m here to learn.”

According to the report, Nouri applied as a franchisee and even cooked burgers himself during his training. “Ultimately, in both worlds, it’s about bringing people along. In soccer, it’s the players; here, it’s the employees. But the basic principle is the same: You have to understand who’s sitting across from you, what drives them, and what they need to perform,” he says about his new role.

Nouri, born in Buxtehude, played for clubs including Werder Bremen, KFC Uerdingen, VfL Osnabrück, and Holstein Kiel. In the summer of 2012, he ended his career with the second team of VfB Oldenburg.

Among other things, Nouri looks back on 252 games in the Regionalliga Nord—before the introduction of the 3. Liga. In the 2009/10 season, he played 16 matches for Holstein Kiel in that league. The 46-year-old was an attacking midfielder.

In the 1998/99 season, he won the UI Cup with Werder Bremen. He also won three state cup titles with SVW’s reserve team and one with VfL Osnabrück.

At Werder, Nouri was promoted from U23 coach to interim and then head coach in 2016, but had to leave in October 2017 following a long losing streak. After a brief stint in Ingolstadt, he became Jürgen Klinsmann’s assistant coach at Hertha in late 2019 and took over the team following Klinsmann’s sudden departure—though only for four Bundesliga matches. In 2022, his last known role in the soccer industry ended in Greece after just a few months.