Eberhard Dirk Schuster (born 29 December 1967) is a German professional football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

he is the currently head coach of

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 ...

club 1. FC Kaiserslautern and former player who played as a defender.

Club career

Schuster, who lived his youth in the

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

, was one of the first East German players to make the move into the West, starting in

Eintracht Braunschweig Braunschweiger Turn- und Sportverein Eintracht von 1895 e.V., commonly known as Eintracht Braunschweig () or BTSV (), is a German football and sports club based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. The club was one of the founding members of the Bunde ...

and soon moving on to

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 ...

in 1991, where he established himself as a respected center-back. A move to

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ball ...

in 1997 proved less successful, and in the following journeyman years he played in Turkey and Austria. He then played for newly promoted Second Bundesliga club

LR Ahlen Rot Weiss Ahlen is a German football club based in Ahlen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Until 2006 the club was known as ''LR Ahlen'' for its major sponsor, but underwent a name change when the sponsor withdrew its support after the team was relegated ...

in 2000, where he had a good stint, before he returned to Austria and then played in the Oberliga, the fourth-highest league with Waldhof.

International career

He was capped three times in the German national team and before that four times in the East German national team. He made his debut for

against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

in East Berlin in March 1990.

Managerial career

ASV Durlach

Schuster's first coaching job was as interim coach for ASV Durlach between 16 October 2006 and 10 January 2007.

Stuttgarter Kickers

On 30 May 2009, Schuster was named as the new head coach of the Stuttgarter Kickers, where he signed a two-year contract until 30 June 2011, which was prematurely extended on 1 April 2010 until 20 June 2012. He guided Kickers to the Regionalliga Süd title in 2011–12, and promotion to the 3. Liga, but was sacked in November 2012 after going five games without scoring a goal. He was appointed manager of 3. liga side SV Darmstadt 98 a month later. He finished with a record of 55 wins, 35 draws, and 26 losses.

Darmstadt 98

Schuster took over as

SV 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 ...

head coach on 28 December 2012. Despite Schuster helping Darmstadt 98 off the bottom of the league, they finished among the relegation places in the 2012–13 season, Schuster's Darmstadt avoided dropping into Germany's fourth tier, the Regionalliga Südwest, thanks to the failure of fierce local rival Kickers Offenbach in obtaining the licence for the new season due to going into administration. In the following season, to the surprise of all experts, Darmstadt managed to get third in the league which meant a relegation-promotion play-off spot for the

. Darmstadt faced Arminia Bielefeld in the play-off and won promotion in dramatic fashion after losing 1–3 at home in the first leg but turning the deficit around in the second leg and scoring the winning 4–2 in the 122nd minute which meant promotion on away goals. In the following

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

Schuster managed to surprise everyone for a second time by finishing 2nd in the league and achieving back-to-back promotion 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 footb ...

after a 33-year absence. He finished with a record of 53 wins, 43 draws, and 35 losses. He was later voted German Coach of the Year for his performance in the 2015–16 Bundesliga season.

Augsburg

Schuster took over as manager of

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded ...

on 2 June 2016; he replaced

Markus Weinzierl Markus Weinzierl (born 28 December 1974) is a German football coach and current manager of 1. FC Nürnberg. As the manager of Jahn Regensburg, a position he held from 2008 to 2012, Weinzierl achieved promotion into the 2. Bundesliga. On 17 May 2 ...

who left for

FC 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 Rhi ...

. Schuster was sacked on 14 December 2016.

Return to Darmstadt

On 11 December 2017, Schuster was once again appointed manager of Darmstadt 98, replacing Torsten Frings. He was sacked on 18 February 2019.

Erzgebirge Aue

Schuster was appointed as the new manager of Erzgebirge Aue on 26 August 2019. He left Aue after the 2020–21 season.

1. FC Kaiserslautern

He was named head coach of 1. FC Kaiserslautern on 10 May 2022.

Managerial statistics

Honours

As a player

Karlsruhe * UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1996 * DFB-Pokal runner-up: 1995–96

As a manager

Individual * German Football Manager of the Year: 2016

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schuster, Dirk Living people 1967 births Sportspeople from Chemnitz East German footballers German footballers East Germany international footballers Germany international footballers Dual internationalists (football) Association football defenders DDR-Oberliga players Bundesliga players Süper Lig players Chemnitzer FC players FSV Zwickau players 1. FC Magdeburg players Eintracht Braunschweig players Karlsruher SC players 1. FC Köln players Antalyaspor footballers FC Admira Wacker Mödling players Rot Weiss Ahlen players SV Wilhelmshaven players SV Waldhof Mannheim players ASV Durlach players German football managers Bundesliga managers 2. Bundesliga managers 3. Liga managers Stuttgarter Kickers managers SV Darmstadt 98 managers FC Augsburg managers FC Erzgebirge Aue managers 1. FC Kaiserslautern managers Footballers from Saxony German expatriate footballers German expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Turkey German expatriate sportspeople in Austria Expatriate footballers in Austria