Dieter Hecking has been introduced at VfL Wolfsburg for the second time in his coaching career. He also talked about what he didn’t like at VfL Bochum.

Dieter Hecking is back on the Bundesliga stage. The 61-year-old is tasked with saving VfL Wolfsburg from imminent relegation. He previously worked for the Lower Saxony club from 2012 to 2016, where he enjoyed his most successful spell as a coach to date.

Just under five months after his dismissal from VfL Bochum, he is now taking over the Wolfsburg team, which is second from bottom in the table. At his presentation on Monday, Hecking also spoke about the situation he found himself in when he joined Bochum, who were threatened with relegation, in November 2024. “You have to look at the situation between Wolfsburg and Bochum differently. At Bochum, I knew it would be incredibly difficult to keep the club in the league with only one point from nine games. The team had also just lost 2-7 in Frankfurt,“ Hecking said. ”I believe that the quality in Bochum was lower than here. Nevertheless, we managed to play for survival for a long time.” At the end of May, Hecking himself announced at a press conference that his contract had been extended until 2027, which would also apply in the event of relegation. In the end, he did not succeed in keeping Bochum in the Bundesliga. After five second division games, from which Hecking only managed to secure three points with the team, the club parted ways with him and sporting director Dirk Dufner. “I have reflected on this time. It was a very intense period at a great club. I really enjoyed working there,“ said Hecking, who then looked back critically on his situation in Bochum: ”The focus there was very much on me. I had to do a lot there besides my actual coaching duties.“ In Wolfsburg, he hopes for different circumstances: ”I mentioned here beforehand that I don’t want everything to focus on me.”

In Bochum, he had “a very close relationship” with managing director Ilja Kaenzig, Hecking said. “I was alone with Ilja in the sporting department for a long time until Dirk Dufner joined us. In hindsight, that was perhaps a little too late. I may have wasted a bit of energy in the relegation battle.“

Can he still benefit from his time in Bochum? ”Of course, such experience helps. But I don’t see myself as a firefighter. At almost every club I’ve been at, I’ve taken over teams that were somewhere between 14th, 15th, and 16th place. In the end, things almost always went in the right direction. In Wolfsburg, it became clear to me that my experience and expertise as a coach were needed. This isn’t supposed to be a one-man show.” His rescue mission begins on Saturday (3:30 p.m./Sky) with a match against third-placed TSG Hoffenheim.