Robin Dutt will be the new coach of Bundesliga club Werder Bremen after his request to leave a role with the German Football Association was granted.
Dutt's contract with the German FA (DFB), which was due to expire in 2016, will instead be terminated by mutual consent at the end of May.
The 48-year-old former Freiburg and Bayer Leverkusen coach will then begin work with Bremen, who parted company with Thomas Schaaf this month after 14 years of collaboration.
"I would like to express particular thanks to the DFB," said Dutt. "On the one hand for the way in which they accommodated my wishes, and on the other hand for the respect I received from my peers and colleagues.
"I am really looking forward to taking my place on the bench again.
"Werder Bremen are a great club and it's a very attractive challenge which I am going to put everything into."
Dutt will be responsible for reversing the north German outfit's fortunes in the wake of their worst league finish since 1999, when Schaaf arrived late in the season to save them from relegation.
"Robin Dutt was the candidate we wanted for the coach's position," Bremen's director of sport Thomas Eichin said.
"We are convinced that we can make a positive new beginning with him."
Dutt became the DFB's director of sport last summer, replacing Matthias Sammer, who took on a similar role at Bayern Munich, but when the former was first approached by Bremen a few weeks ago he asked to be released from his duties.
And, after consideration, the DFB granted that wish today.
"Among the members of the board, we agree that this development does not fit in with the general requirements for the position of director of sport," DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach said.
"For that, you need somebody leading the way for long-term, continuous development.
"We achieved that with Matthias Sammer since he came in April 2006 and fulfilled his role for six years.
"But in this case, we saw no alternative since Robin Dutt asserted his desire to work as a coach again. We wish him all the best for his future career."
After seven years at the helm, Tony Pulis departed last week with chairman Peter Coates saying they were looking to take the Potters in a new direction.
Rudge has also recently left the club after 14 years with other changes likely to be made but he does not believe the owners are trying to take back control from the manager.
"They are trying to change the structure of the club to take it away from the more traditional approach to a more continental approach," he told The Sentinel. "That means the club dictating the policy more and the manager getting on with the first team.
"They have decided on change and there was a need for change in terms of some aspects of recruitment: Tony had been dictating the terms on that.
"The manager in the past had control over players' contracts etc, but that's changing more to owners and chief executives.
"But I still cannot see Peter and John Coates overriding the manager on new signings. I don't think they would interfere that much.
"I cannot see a situation where any manager coming into Stoke says he doesn't want a player, but they go ahead and sign him any way.
"I can see a situation where the next manager will be in close association with Peter and John, but he would have the final say. I'm sure they would want it to be that way too.
"But in general, they are definitely taking more responsibilities off the manager."
Former Blackburn, Manchester City, Fulham and QPR manager Mark Hughes is the current favourite for the Stoke vacancy.
