First Augsburg, then HSV, now Kosovo and Besiktas Istanbul – hardly any coach is as often a top candidate as Andre Breitenreiter.
If you believe what you hear in the rumor mill, Andre Breitenreiter doesn’t have to worry too much about his future. After all, the former FC Schalke 04 coach is currently being considered by several clubs.
He was a top candidate at FC Augsburg (the Dane Jess Thorup was eventually chosen). Hamburger SV are said to have been in contact with the 50-year-old (as a replacement for Tim Walter, but this fell through on Friday). Kosovo are currently said to have Breitenreiter on their radar as national team coach. And on Friday evening, Besiktas Istanbul were finally added to the list of interested parties.
Besiktas recently parted company with coach Riza Calimbay following a 3:1 home defeat against Corendon Alanyaspor. After 16 match days in the Süperliga, the club is in fifth place in the table (26 points), but is already 17 points behind the leading duo of city rivals Fenerbahce and Galatasaray.
Breitenreiter: Memories of his time at Schalke
Breitenreiter’s advisor Stefan Backs commented on a possible commitment in Turkey on Sport1: “Besiktas is a big club with great fans. It is an honor to be associated with this club. We’ll see whether it turns into a commitment.” Breitenreiter last coached TSG Hoffenheim and was released in February.
Breitenreiter was promoted to the Bundesliga with both SC Paderborn (2013/14) and Hannover 96 (2016/17) and secured the Swiss championship with FC Zurich in 2021. He worked at Schalke from 2015 to 2016 and did not fulfill his contract until 2017, as he was released early despite finishing fifth in the Bundesliga and reaching the Europa League intermediate round with S04.
He said at the time about the end at Schalke: “It definitely took its toll on me in the second half of the season. I think I’m a stable person and I can take a lot, but I took the personal propaganda against me to heart and let it get to me. We played a really good season, so I didn’t understand it and felt it was extremely unfair. I suddenly became preoccupied with other things and lost my focus on what was important. Schalke was a big learning process for me. “