Tobias Schweinsteiger officially leaves Bayern Munich for Austria

The final, formal tie between Bayern Munich and Tobias Schweinsteiger has been cut: the elder Schweinsteiger approached Bayern Munich earlier this week after securing a new coaching position at FC Juniors OÖ (i.e. Oberöstereich) in Austrian 2. Liga. Jochen Sauer, the director of Bayern’s youth department, confirmed the move (AZ):

Tobias approached us with this request, which we were happy to grant. We thank him for his great engagement as a player and coach at FC Bayern and wish him much success in his new endeavor.

After ending his active playing career with Bayern II in 2015, Schweinsteiger joined the coaching staff, leading the U17 B-Juniors to a championship title with co-coach Tim Walter in the 2016-2017 season, and then joining him as assistant coach of Bayern II for 2017-2018.

After Walter’s departure to become head coach of Holstein Kiel, however, Bayern promoted U19 coach Holger Seitz to the vacancy, while making national team legend Miroslav Klose head coach of the U17 team. Uli Hoeneß’s nephew, Sebastian Hoeneß, meanwhile, took over the U19 team, leaving Schweinsteiger on the outside looking in.

Schweinsteiger conferred with Klose, but ultimately the duo decided an awkward collaboration was not in their best interest. Hence Schweinsteiger found himself searching for a new position — though still contracted with Bayern — for the latter part of 2018.

Now that the move is final, Schweinsteiger bade the Bayern family farewell with a truly magnificent message (tip: watch until the end!):

He said, “FC Bayern was always a big matter of the heart for me, and I’m thankful for the fantastic time I had had at this great club.”

Off to Austria: FC Juniors OÖ

Schweinsteiger will take the next step up in his career with a move to the second division of the Austrian Bundesliga. Former coach Ronald Brunmayr had committed to coaching the Juniors through the fall of the 2018-2019 season before returning to coach at the youth academy of LASK Linz. His position now vacant, FC Juniors OÖ has hired a “Doppelspitze” (a “double-point”) in head coach Andreas Wieland (himself the former head of Linz’s academy) and Schweinsteiger as his Teamchef (“team chief”) — effectively, assistant coach.

The president of the Juniors, Franz Mayer, expressed the club’s excitement about signing the duo:

We’re happy that we were able to secure one of the biggest coaching talents of Germany in Tobias Schweinsteiger for the position of Teamchef. And it was moreover a key desire to strengthen our connection to the soccer academy of Linz, in which our club holds shares. The appointment of Andreas Wieland as new head coach is accordingly an important step and also a strong signal of our focus as a talent forge!

Schweinsteiger will have ample opportunity to develop players and refine his coaching knowledge. His contract runs for four years, until 2022.

I am confident this is by no means the last we have heard of Tobias Schweinsteiger.