2nd League: That’s why Hannover 96 is changing the coach again

Two calendar years without a change of coach have rarely happened in the recent history of Hannover 96, and before this meticulously earned reputation could suffer, the second division team from Lower Saxony quickly got rid of their head coach again shortly before the turn of the year. Stefan Leitl had to go.

So on the second day of 2025, André Breitenreiter, 51, suddenly sat on the podium at Maschsee. Coaches come, coaches go, especially in Hanover. Breitenreiter knows this well. The native of Hanover, who lives in the Altwarmbüchen district, was already a coach at 96 – and was even the last trainer to date to achieve promotion with the club. That was in 2017, Breitenreiter came in March and didn’t lose a game until he was promoted to the Bundesliga. After another year and a half and a 1:5 loss at Borussia Dortmund, he lost his job again.

Nevertheless, the step now feels like “coming home,” Breitenreiter said on Thursday: “Everyone knows about my special connection to Hannover 96.” His old stadium, the old paths, “so many familiar faces” – Breitenreiter smiled a lot at his official presentation. There was also praise from the old and new superiors: “What sets him apart is his conviction that he can win something,” said sports director Marcus Mann.

Breitenreiter also said sentences that everyone wanted to hear. “2017 is completely different than today. The goal is the same: We want to get promoted,” explained the new coach. Breitenreiter’s most recent engagements in Hoffenheim and with the English second division club Huddersfield were less successful. For him, Hanover is an opportunity to regain a foothold in German football – ideally by returning to the Bundesliga.

The doubts about predecessor Leitl have been brewing in the club for a long time

For his predecessor Leitl, 47, the resignation shortly before New Year’s Eve had to feel like a bad joke, although he also had an idea of ​​how tense the thread of patience in Hanover sometimes is. In order to get away from the image of the hire-and-fire club, the then professional department head Martin Kind originally came up with a three-year plan for Leitl: two years of development, then a return to the Bundesliga in the third year, according to the theory. Measured against this, Leitl was on target: He had rejuvenated the team, achieved a permeability from the youngsters to the professionals – and was currently in seventh place in the extremely tight Christmas table, only two points behind second place. Promotion was by no means certain in this wild second division season, but it is definitely still possible.

But doubts about Leitl have been brewing in the club for some time, at least since the first-round defeat in the DFB Cup at third division club Arminia Bielefeld. The well-known quote from sports director Mann comes from this time in August, who described the sport that Leitl practiced in Hanover as “sleeper football”. 96 was solid defensively this season and also reliably scored points in its own stadium. But in the storm there were sometimes huge problems. In addition, there was a definite weakness away from home, with only one win achieved on foreign turf in the first half of the season. The hardest part was certainly the 2-0 derby defeat in October against our hated neighbors from Braunschweig.

The belief in a successful path with Leitl was “no longer unconditional,” said sports director Mann. The long-time president, managing director and current chairman of the supervisory board, Kind, also did not stand out as a major Leitl advocate. In any case, he is not known to stick with his trainers longer than necessary. Every time things went up in the past two and a half years, there were slumps against easier opponents under Leitl, Kind told the Sport1 broadcaster: “That’s a development that even I can’t explain.” So the thumbs down went down Leitl.

Under Leitl, 96 was the league’s weakest counterattack team

It is noteworthy that Breitenreiter praises the work of his predecessor. “A lot of things were good, a lot of things worked,” said Breitenreiter about the 96 game under Leitl: “But there are starting points that we will work on from day one.” By that he certainly meant exploiting opportunities, a new striker should be in the team Winter break still to be committed. And he also meant the fact that Hannover is the weakest counter-attacking team in the league in the current season (zero goals). Actually a mockery, 96 once earned a reputation as the most feared counter-attacking team in the Bundesliga under the then coach Mirko Slomka.

Speaking of Slomka: Bringing back a coach who was previously successful at 96 has already gone wrong in Hanover. In any case, the last return campaign to the dugout had made no one happy. In 2019, Slomka was reactivated, having previously played in the European Cup at the age of 96. After 13 second division games, Slomka was released again.