Second division soccer team Hansa Rostock parted ways with sports director Martin Pieckenhagen on Easter Monday. The club announced this in a press release. Some successors are already being traded.
The 51-year-old, whose contract runs until the end of December 2023, has been released from his duties with immediate effect. According to the club, the provisional management of the sporting area at Hansa Rostock will be taken over by CEO Robert Marien and squad planner Kevin Meinhardt until further notice.
“After continuous assessment and analysis of the current season, it became clear that the development of the sporting area has unfortunately fallen well short of expectations,” explained Rainer Lemmer, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, adding: “Therefore, we felt compelled to react and plan the new season – independently the league membership – with a personnel realignment.”
The replacement should be promoted promptly and in close cooperation with the Supervisory Board, it said. CEO Robert Marien explained: “You have to look closely at what the market has to offer and which person suits FC Hansa. Thoroughness counts before speed. We won’t let the day or the week matter.”
Actionism at FC Hansa?
Hansa had recently employed the third coach this season in Alois Schwartz. Above all, the change from promotion coach Jens Härtel to Patrick Glöckner last November had brought Pieckenhagen massive criticism from the fans. It was a risk to get the young coach with no second division experience – and a high one at that.
So it’s no surprise that 51-year-old Pieckenhagen has to go as well. But the time when the activity of a sports director is currently without any special incidents: New players cannot be signed, and squad planning is also not possible because the league affiliation is unclear. And so the decision tends to appear actionist.
Kreuzer and Pelzer acted as successors
The “Ostsee-Zeitung” and the “Bild” have already mentioned Oliver Kreuzer as a possible successor to Pieckenhagen. The 57-year-old had to leave the league competitor Karlsruher SC as sports director at the beginning of April. Kreuzer knows Hansa trainer Schwartz from their time together at KSC (August 2017 – February 2020).
According to “Bild”, former Rostock player Sebastian Pelzer could also be considered. The 42-year-old has been technical director at Chicago Fire FC in Major League Soccer (MLS) since late 2019. He still has strong family ties to Rostock.
Rise, relegation and crash under Pieckenhagen
When Pelzer signed on as a player at Hansa in 2010, Pieckenhagen, who kept goal at the Baltic Sea from 1996 to 2001, was long gone. In January 2019, “Piecke” then took over the post of sports director. After promotion to the second division in the 2020/2021 season after nine years in the third division under his leadership, they stayed up in the table in 13th place in 2021/2022.
In the meantime, however, the Mecklenburgers have been waiting for a win for seven games and are currently second to last in the table. At the weekend, Rostock lost to Holstein Kiel 2:3 (1:2) and also remained without a point in the second game under their new coach Schwartz.
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North Magazine | 04/10/2023 | 19:30 o’clock