Thomas Letsch (born 26 August 1968) is a German professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

who is manager of

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

club

FC Red Bull Salzburg Fußballclub Red Bull Salzburg, commonly known as simply Red Bull Salzburg, is an Austrian professional Association football, football club based in Wals-Siezenheim, that competes in the Austrian Bundesliga, the top flight of Football in Austria ...

Managerial career

Letsch was never a professional footballer and started his coaching career at VfB Oberesslingen/Zell as

player-manager A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

. In July 2001, he became manager of

Stuttgarter Kickers Stuttgarter Kickers is a German association football club that plays in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, founded on 21 September 1899 as FC Stuttgarter Cickers. The club currently plays in the Regionalliga Südwest, the fourth tier of German footb ...

's reserve team until 2002, but was also a part of the first team staff until the end of the 2002–03 season. He then moved to FC Union Heilbronn and was the manager for one season. From January 2005 until July 2007, he was the assistant manager of

SSV Ulm 1846 SSV Ulm 1846 FUSSBALL e.V., commonly known as SSV Ulm 1846 or SSV Ulm, is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Ulm, Baden-Württemberg. SSV Ulm 1846 FUSSBALL was formed on 7 March 2009 as new independent club through the separat ...

. From January 2008 to June 2009, he was the manager of

SG Sonnenhof Großaspach SG Sonnenhof Großaspach (), commonly known as Sonnenhof Großaspach, is a German professional Football team, football club based in Aspach, Baden-Württemberg, Aspach, Baden-Württemberg. The club is currently playing in the Regionalliga Südwes ...

. In July 2012 he went to Salzburg where managed the under-16 team of

. Two months later, he was also appointed as football director of academy. In the following season, he was promoted to first team assistant manager. From July 2014, he was manager for the under-18 squad. During his time with the under-18s, he was also the assistant coach for FC Red Bull Salzburg. In December 2015, after the firing of Peter Zeidler, he was for two matches head coach of Salzburg. In the 2015–16 season, he also managed the team of FC Red Bull Salzburg in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

. Following Zeidler, he became manager of

FC Liefering FC Liefering GmbH is an Football in Austria, Austrian association football club, originally from Salzburg#Districts, Liefering, Salzburg. It currently plays in the Austrian Football Second League, Second League, the second tier of Austrian f ...

in June 2015. On 18 June 2017,

Erzgebirge Aue Fußball Club Erzgebirge Aue e.V., commonly known as simply FC Erzgebirge Aue or Erzgebirge Aue (), is a German football club based in Aue-Bad Schlema, Saxony. The former East German side was a founding member of the 3. Liga in 2008–09, ...

appointed Letsch as their new manager, replacing the

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

-bound

Domenico Tedesco Domenico Tedesco (; born 12 September 1985) is an Italian-German football manager who was most recently the head coach of the Belgium national team. In 2017, he took over as manager of Schalke 04 and guided them to a second place finish in the ...

on a three-year contract. However, after just three games, Aue sacked Letsch due to the club's poor form and results. On 27 February 2018, he was appointed

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

manager until the end of 2017–18 season, replacing

Thorsten Fink Thorsten Fink (born 29 October 1967) is a German football coach and a former footballer, who is the head coach of Belgian Pro League club KRC Genk. Playing career Fink began his career with Borussia Dortmund's reserve squad before moving to S ...

. He was sacked on 11 March 2019. On 26 May 2020, he was announced as the new manager of

Vitesse Arnhem SBV Vitesse Arnhem (''Stichting Betaald Voetbal Vitesse Arnhem, Eng: Professional Football Foundation Vitesse Arnhem''), widely known as Vitesse () or internationally known as Vitesse Arnhem, is a Dutch professional association football, footba ...

after club icon

Edward Sturing Edward Jeroen Sturing (born 13 June 1963) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Vitesse. Sturing played as a defender and earned three caps for the Netherlands national team. Career St ...

. Letsch made a good start to the 2020–21 season. The club went on to secure fourth place in the Eredivisie, reached the final of the Dutch Cup (which was lost 2–1 to

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or commonly Ajax, is a Dutch professional Association football, football Football team, club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. ...

) and ensuring qualification for the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

. In September 2022, he left Arnhem and moved to

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German professional association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. They currently play ...

. After the club fell to 15th place in the 2023–24 season, Letsch was sacked on 8 April 2024. On 18 December 2024, Letsch signed a contract to return to Red Bull Salzburg in Austria until the summer of 2027.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Letsch, Thomas 1968 births Living people German football managers FC Red Bull Salzburg managers FC Liefering managers FC Erzgebirge Aue managers 2. Bundesliga managers SG Sonnenhof Großaspach managers FK Austria Wien managers Austrian Football Bundesliga managers SBV Vitesse managers Eredivisie managers VfL Bochum managers Bundesliga managers German expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Austria Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands German expatriate sportspeople in Austria German expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Sportspeople from Esslingen am Neckar Sportspeople from Stuttgart (region)