Stefan Leitl (born 29 August 1977) is a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager and former player who currently manages

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

. He has managed Ingolstadt 04 II and Ingolstadt 04. He has played for Bayern Munich (A),

SV Lohhof SV Lohhof is a German association football club from the Lohhof district of Unterschleißheim, Bavaria, north of Munich. The footballers are part of a sports club that includes departments for athletics, badminton, gymnastics, martial arts, swi ...

1. FC Nürnberg 1. Fußball-Club Nürnberg Verein für Leibesübungen e. V., often called 1. FC Nürnberg (, en, 1. Football Club Nuremberg) or simply Nürnberg, is a German association football club in Nuremberg, Bavaria, who currently compete in the 2. Bund ...

, SpVgg Unterhaching,

Darmstadt 98 Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was briefly known as ''Rasen-Sp ...

, and Ingolstadt 04.

Playing career

Leitl played as a youth for FC Ismaning, before joining the youth setup of

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

in 1987. He left the club to join SpVgg Unterhaching, but returned, and began playing for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

in 1995. A year later he was promoted to the senior squad, but did not make any first-team appearances, continuing to play for the reserves in the Regionalliga Süd. In 1998, he left FC Bayern, joining local amateur side

, with whom he won the Oberliga Bayern, securing promotion to the Regionalliga. He left, however, joining

, then of the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

. After two years Nürnberg were promoted to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

as champions, where Leitl found his opportunities limited – after just five appearances he left the club half-way through the 2001–02 season, dropping back down a division to return to Unterhaching. He could not prevent them being relegated down to the Regionalliga, but played in 33 of 36 games the following season as they won the title, finishing ahead of Jahn Regensburg on goals scored. Leitl had now been a champion at the top four levels of

German football Association football, Football (or "soccer") is the most popular sport in Germany. The German Football Association (german: Deutscher Fußball-Bund, link=no or ) is the sport's national governing body, with 6.6 million members (roughly eight ...

. The following season Leitl had lost his place, and only played 13 games, mostly as a substitute. He left the club in July 2004, joining Darmstadt, where he spent three seasons in the Regionalliga, leaving in 2007 after the club were relegated. He returned to

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

to sign for FC Ingolstadt 04, where he established himself as a key player, captaining the club to promotion as league runners-up. Ingolstadt were relegated after one season, but bounced back in 2010, beating

Hansa Rostock FC Hansa Rostock () is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The club is also called as "the cog" because of its club crest. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the forme ...

in a playoff to return to the 2. Bundesliga. Leitl started the 2010–11 season with a goal in a DFB-Pokal match against

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the D ...

, the first goal at Ingolstadt's new Audi Sportpark. He retired at the end of the 2012–13 season.

Managerial career

Leitl was manager of

FC Ingolstadt 04 II The FC Ingolstadt 04 II is a German association football club from the city of Ingolstadt, Bavaria. It is the reserve team of FC Ingolstadt. History FC Ingolstadt 04 was formed in 2004 through a merger of two local rivals, MTV Ingolstadt and ESV ...

between 16 September 2014 and 21 August 2017. The first match for Leitl as manager of FC Ingolstadt 04 II was a 4–2 win against

Wacker Burghausen SV Wacker Burghausen is a German football club based in Burghausen, Bavaria and is part of one of the nation's largest sports clubs with some 6,000 members participating in two dozen different sports. History The club was founded on 13 Novemb ...

on 19 September 2014. FC Ingolstadt 04 II finished the 2014–15 season in fifth place. Ingolstadt II finished the following season in 11th place. Ingolstadt II finished the 2016–17 season in eighth place. His final match for Ingolstadt II was a 2–0 win against 1860 Rosenheim on 18 August 2017 because Leitl replaced

Maik Walpurgis Maik Walpurgis (born 9 October 1973) is a German football coach who last managed Dynamo Dresden Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V., commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, are a German association football club based in Dre ...

on 22 August 2017 as manager of the

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

. He was sacked on 22 September 2018. He finished with a record of 14 wins, 11 draws, and 15 losses. On 5 February 2019, he was appointed as the new head coach of Greuther Fürth as a replacement for Damir Burić. Under his management, the club finished second in the 2020–21 season of the

, and Greuther Fürth gained promotion to the

for the second time in the club's history. On 27 April 2022, Leitl announced that he would leave Greuther Fürth at the end of the 2021–22 season. On 8 May 2022, he was announced as the new head coach for

starting with the 2022–23 season.

Managerial record

Honours

: 1996–97 *

DFB Liga-Pokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five teams of the previous B ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

* DFB-Pokal: 1997–98 * Oberliga Bayern: 1998–99 *

: 2000–01 * Regionalliga Süd: 2002–03

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leitl, Stefan 1977 births Living people German footballers Germany under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders FC Bayern Munich II players FC Bayern Munich footballers 1. FC Nürnberg players SpVgg Unterhaching players SV Darmstadt 98 players FC Ingolstadt 04 players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga managers 3. Liga players FC Ingolstadt 04 managers SpVgg Greuther Fürth managers Hannover 96 managers Footballers from Munich German football managers