Wolfsburg hires former Werder Bremen coach Florian Kohfeldt

WOLFSBURG, Germany (AP) — Wolfsburg appointed former Werder Bremen coach Florian Kohfeldt to take over the team on Tuesday following Mark van Bommel’s dismissal.

The Volkswagen-backed club said the 39-year-old Kohfeldt was getting a contract through 2023 and would start coaching the team on Thursday.

Kohfeldt was Bremen coach from October 2017 until last May, when he was fired by the club in an ultimately futile bid to avoid Bundesliga relegation. He had saved the team from relegation the season before. Kohfeldt was previously assistant coach in Bremen.

“We are convinced that he can identify himself with our ways and that we can get back on the path to success with him,” Wolfsburg sporting director Marcel Schäfer said.

Wolfsburg fired Van Bommel on Sunday after only nine league games in charge. The Dutch coach had started well with five wins in all competitions, but made a major error in the first, when he fielded six substitutes instead of the permitted five in a German Cup win over Preußen Münster.

Wolfsburg was subsequently thrown out of the competition in favor of the fourth-division team, and though it won its first four Bundesliga games, it has since gone five matches in the league and three in the Champions League without a victory.

___

More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports