Franco Foda (born 23 April 1966) is a German

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

who is the manager of Kosovo national team.

Playing career

Foda appeared in over 400 top-flight matches in (West) Germany, Switzerland and Austria. During his second spell with

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

in the 1980s he won two caps with the West Germany national team under coach

Franz Beckenbauer Franz Anton Beckenbauer (; 11 September 1945 – 7 January 2024) was a German professional football player, manager, and official. Nicknamed ("the Emperor"), he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, and is one of nine p ...

; Foda played against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in late 1987. During his first ever international appearance, on 12 December 1987 in Brasilia against Brazil, Foda was at the centre of controversy. Both at the reading of the team names and later when he was substituted in, he was met with great applause by the Brazilian fans. Foda only found out the next day that this was due to his name translating to "free intercourse" in Portuguese. Foda joined

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

's first team during the winter break of their 1996–97 season under head coach

Karl Engel Karl (Rudolf) Engel (Birsfelden, 1 June 1923 - Chernex, 2 September 2006) was a Swiss pianist. In 1952 Engel was awarded the second prize at the Queen Elisabeth competition. Throughout his concert career, he cultivated the art song repertory ...

. Foda played his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game in the

St. Jakob Stadium The St. Jakob Stadium was a football (soccer), football stadium in Basel, Switzerland and the former home of Swiss club FC Basel. It was built in view of the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted several import ...

on 2 March 1997 as Basel won 1–0 against

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. During his few months with the club, Foda played a total of 15 games for Basel, without scoring a goal. 13 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, one was in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

and the other one was a friendly game.

Coaching career

Early career

Foda moved into coaching with

Sturm Graz Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian professional association football club, based in Graz, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and white. In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austr ...

as an assistant coach. He had been interim head coach between 20 September 2002 until November 2002. At this point, Foda became the permanent head coach until they hired Gilbert Gress to become the head coach on 4 June 2003. He then went on to coach the reserve team immediately after to when he was promoted to head coach of the first team on 1 June 2006. Sturm Graz won the

2010–11 Bundesliga The 2010–11 Bundesliga was the 48th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football league. It began on 20 August 2010 and concluded on 14 May 2011. The winter break was in effect between weekends around 18 December 2010 and 15 January 20 ...

and the

2009–10 Austrian Cup The 2009–10 Austrian Cup (, also ''Stiegl-Cup'' for sponsoring purposes) was the 76th season of Austria's nationwide football cup competition. It commenced with the matches of the preliminary round in July 2009 and concluded with the Final on 16 ...

under Foda. He was originally scheduled to leave after the 2011–12 season. However, he ended up being sacked on 12 April 2012 after the club was knocked–out of the

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for a record 27th time. Wo ...

1. FC Kaiserslautern

On 22 May 2012, Foda was announced as new head coach of

, who had just been relegated to the second division after two seasons in the top flight. On 29 August 2013, he was sacked as head coach with immediate effect.

Return to Sturm Graz

Foda returned to Sturm Graz on 30 September 2014 and won his first match in–charge on 4 October 2014 against

Grödig Grödig is a market town of Salzburg-Umgebung District in the state of Salzburg in Austria. Geography Grödig is located south of the Salzburg city limits in the historic ''Flachgau'' region, near the border with Bavaria, Germany. The market t ...

Austria national team

In October 2017 it was announced that Foda would become manager of the Austria national team, with effect from January 2018. Foda resigned from the position in March 2022, following their failure to qualify for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

after the defeat to Wales in Cardiff.

FC Zürich

On 8 June 2022, he was announced as the new head coach of Swiss champions

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a professional football club based in Zurich, Switzerland. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League thirteen times and the Swiss Cup ten times. ...

, replacing

André Breitenreiter André Breitenreiter (born 2 October 1973) is a German professional manager and former player. He last managed Hannover 96. Breitenreiter’s entire playing career was in his native Germany, appearing in both the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga for ...

. Foda was sacked by Zürich on 21 September.

Kosovo national team

On 17 February 2024,

Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...

appointed Foda after agreeing to a contract until February 2026, this happened after the former coach

Primož Gliha Primož Gliha (born 8 October 1967) is a Slovenian professional football manager and former player who played as a forward. He was most recently the manager of Kosovo national team. International career On 3 June 1992, Gliha made his debut wit ...

decided to resign after weak results in November 2023.

Personal life

Foda is of Italian descent through his father. His son

Sandro Sandro is an Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swiss, Georgian and Croatian given name, often a diminutive of Alessandro or Alexander. It is also a surname. Sandro may refer to: Given name or nickname Sports * Sandro (footballer, born 1973), Braz ...

(born 1989) first appeared professionally with Sturm Graz in 2007, when his father was head coach.

Coaching record

Honours

Player

1. FC Kaiserslautern *

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

1989–90 Bayer Leverkusen *

: 1992–93 Sturm Graz *

Austrian Football 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 ...

: 1997–98, 1998–99 *

: 1998–99 *

Austrian Supercup The Austrian Supercup (German: ÖFB-Supercup) was a football competition held annually from 1986 until 2004 between the winners of the Austrian Football Bundesliga and the Austrian Cup. 19 editions were played during the short history of the com ...

: 1999

Manager

Sturm Graz *

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

: 2009–10

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Foda, Franco 1966 births Living people German men's footballers German football managers Germany men's international footballers Germany men's under-21 international footballers German sportspeople of Italian descent Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 1. FC Kaiserslautern II players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players Arminia Bielefeld players 1. FC Saarbrücken players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players VfB Stuttgart players FC Basel players Austrian Football Bundesliga players SK Sturm Graz players German expatriate men's footballers Expatriate football managers in Austria SK Sturm Graz managers Men's association football defenders 2. Bundesliga managers Austria national football team managers Kosovo national football team managers UEFA Euro 2020 managers German expatriate football managers German expatriate sportspeople in Austria Footballers from Mainz FC Zürich managers Swiss Super League managers Expatriate football managers in Switzerland German expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate football managers in Kosovo German expatriate sportspeople in Kosovo West German men's footballers