Sports Second League
Kaiserslautern brings Friedhelm Funkel out of retirement
As of: 3:55 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
Dimitrios Grammozis has to leave after just six league games at 1. FC Kaiserslautern. The success in the DFB Cup didn’t help the coach either. The successor to the traditional club will be a club legend.
1. FC Kaiserslautern has parted ways with coach Dimitrios Grammozis. Just 72 days after he took office, the traditional club responded to the decline in the 2nd Bundesliga.
His successor will be old trainer Friedhelm Funkel. Kaiserslautern confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the 70-year-old would succeed Grammozis. Matthias Lust joins his coaching team as an assistant.
Friedhelm Funkel takes over the FCK
Source: dpa/Marcus Brandt
The former FCK professional Funkel last trained 1. FC Köln for a few months in 2021 and saved them from relegation from the Bundesliga. During his active time, he played 89 competitive games for Lautern from 1980 to 1983. With well over 1,000 Bundesliga and second division games as a coach and player and eleven coaching positions – including two in Cologne – Funkel knows the business better than almost anyone else.
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In addition to Grammozis, the Palatinate team also released his assistant coach Sven Piepenbrock. Under the German-Greek Grammozis, who only took office on December 3rd as Dirk Schuster’s successor, the Lauterers lost five of six second division games. “With the exemption, the FCK is reacting to the recent sporting results in the league, which have not taken the positive turn that was hoped for,” said Kaiserslautern.
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Although the 45-year-old Grammozis won the DFB Cup round of 16 against 1. FC Nürnberg and the quarter-finals at Hertha BSC with the Palatinate team, FCK fell to 16th place in the league. Grammozis got five new players during the winter break.
Fans demanded separation from Grammozis
With only 21 points, the FCK is level on points with second-to-last Hansa Rostock in the second division and has to fear falling into the third division two years after being promoted again. After the recent 2-1 home defeat against SC Paderborn, fans had already called for Grammozis to be separated.
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Managing director Thomas Hengen avoided making a commitment to the coach immediately after the game. “The trainer is the poorest pig, he had little standing here right from the start, for whatever reason,” Hengen said. “The mood is not in danger of changing, the mood has changed.” Grammozis had already coached FC Schalke 04 and SV Darmstadt 98 before Lautern.