Thomas Letsch (born 26 August 1968) is a German professional

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game bega ...

who is the manager of

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seasons in the Bundeslig ...

Managerial career

Letsch was never a professional footballer and started his coaching career at VfB Oberesslingen/Zell as

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

. In July 2001, he became manager of

Stuttgarter Kickers Stuttgarter Kickers is a German association football club that plays in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, founded on 21 September 1899 as FC Stuttgarter Cickers. History In its early years the club had a decent local squad that played in the Südk ...

's reserve team until 2002, but was also a part of the first team staff until the end of the 2002–03 season. He then moved to FC Union Heilbronn and was the manager for one season. From January 2005 until July 2007, he was the assistant manager of

SSV Ulm 1846 SSV Ulm 1846 is a German football club from Ulm, Baden-Württemberg. The modern-day football department, officially playing as SSV Ulm 1846 Fussball, was formed on 9 March 2009 when the department separated from SSV Ulm 1846. The club's great ...

.Profile at Footballdatbaase
footballdatabase.eu From January 2008 to June 2009, he was the manager of

SG Sonnenhof Großaspach SG Sonnenhof Großaspach (german: Sportgemeinschaft Sonnenhof Großaspach e.V.), commonly known as Sonnenhof Großaspach, is a German professional football club based in Aspach, Baden-Württemberg. The club play in the Regionalliga Südwest, whi ...

. In July 2012 he went to Salzburg where managed the under-16 team of FC Red Bull Salzburg. Two months later, he was also appointed as football director of academy. In the following season, he was promoted to first team assistant manager. From July 2014, he was manager for the under-18 squad. During his time with the under-18s, he was also the assistant coach for FC Red Bull Salzburg. In December 2015, after the firing of

Peter Zeidler Peter Zeidler (born 8 August 1962) is a German football manager who manages Swiss club St. Gallen. Coaching career Zeidler started his coaching career with VfR Aalen in 2002 and was appointed manager of 1. FC Nürnberg II three years later. Follo ...

, he was for two matches head coach of Salzburg. In the 2015–16 season, he also managed the team of FC Red Bull Salzburg in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League ...

. Following Zeidler, he became manager of

FC Liefering FC Liefering GmbH is an Austrian association football club, originally from Liefering, a section of Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, ...

in June 2015. On 18 June 2017,

Erzgebirge Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. Liga in 2008–09, ...

appointed Letsch as their new manager, replacing the

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

-bound

Domenico Tedesco Domenico is an Italian language, Italian given name for males and may refer to: People * Domenico Alfani, Italian painter * Domenico Allegri, Italian composer * Domenico Alvaro, Italian mobster * Domenico Ambrogi, Italian painter * Domenico Auri ...

on a three-year contract. However, after just three games, Aue sacked Letsch due to the club's poor form and results. On 27 February 2018, he was appointed Austria Wien manager until the end of 2017–18 season, replacing

Thorsten Fink Thorsten Fink (born 29 October 1967) is a German football coach and a former footballer, currently works as manager of Riga FC. Career Fink began his career with Borussia Dortmund's reserve squad before moving to SG Wattenscheid 09, where he hel ...

. He was sacked on 11 March 2019. On 26 May 2020, he was announced as the new manager of Vitesse Arnhem after club icon

Edward Sturing Edward Jeroen Sturing (born 13 June 1963) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. Sturing played as a defender and earned three caps for the Netherlands national team. Career Sturing played for De Graafschap and Vitesse, ...

. Letsch made a good start to the 2020–21 season. The club went on to secure fourth place in the Eredivisie, reached the final of the Dutch Cup (which was lost 2–1 to

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

) and ensuring qualification for the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on thei ...

. In September 2022, he left Arnhem and moved to

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Letsch, Thomas 1968 births Living people German football managers FC Red Bull Salzburg managers FC Liefering managers FC Erzgebirge Aue managers 2. Bundesliga managers SG Sonnenhof Großaspach managers FK Austria Wien managers Austrian Football Bundesliga managers SBV Vitesse managers Eredivisie managers VfL Bochum managers Bundesliga managers Expatriate football managers in Austria Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands German expatriate sportspeople in Austria German expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands People from Esslingen am Neckar Sportspeople from Stuttgart (region)