It’s official: Jupp Heynckes will coach Bayern Munich until end of season

Jupp Heynckes will take over as coach of Bayern Munich until the end of the season, the club announced Friday.

Heynckes said in a club press release that “I wouldn’t have returned to any other club in the world, but FC Bayern München are very close to my heart. My coaching staff and I will now do everything to bring back successful football for the fans. I’m very much looking forward to this challenge.”

Peter Hermann and Hermann Gerland will join Heynckes as his assistants. Hermann left his post as assistant coach at 2.Bundesliga leaders Fortuna Düsseldorf, while Gerland, current sporting head of the FC Bayern Campus, will step back from that work to assist the first team until the end of the season.

“There’s a great mutual trust between Jupp Heynckes and FC Bayern. That showed itself again in the conversations that Uli Hoeness, Hasan Salihamidzic and I have had with him. We’re very thankful to Jupp that he’s accepted the offer of head coach. He’s the ideal coach for FC Bayern at this moment in time,” said Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic said: “Jupp Heynckes is a master of man management and tactics. We’re convinced he’s exactly the right man to get the team back on track and achieve our aims.”

Heynckes, who is 72 years old, is best remembered for leading Bayern to a treble in the 2012-13 season, after which he retired. In his two previous full-time spells at Bayern, Heynckes won three Bundesliga titles (1988–89, 1989–90, 2012–13) and is the most successful coach in the club’s history. Heynckes also coached the final five games of the 2008-09 season after Jurgen Klinsmann was fired.