Hermann Gerland may return to lead Bayern’s youth academy

The “Tiger” may soon retreat to his former stomping grounds on the FC Bayern Campus: according to Bild, Bayern legend Hermann Gerland may not stay with the professional team after serving as one of Jupp Heynckes’s assistant coaches. Bayern Munich’s front office is reportedly still deliberating where Gerland may serve the club best.

After coaching FC Bayern II in the amateur Regionalliga since 2001, Gerland became Jupp Heynckes’s assistant coach in 2009 and stayed in that role under Louis van Gaal, Pep Guardiola, and Carlo Ancelotti until summer 2017, when he left Ancelotti’s coaching staff to oversea Bayern’s new youth academy. When Ancelotti was dismissed in October, however, Gerland rejoined Heynckes’s coaching staff for the rest of the 2017/18 season.

In the aftermath of Ancelotti’s departure, Bayern decided internally that incoming head coaches may not impose a completely new staff on the team, but that does not entail that the staff of assistants and other coaches remains the same from one coach to the next. Heynckes’s right-hand man, Peter Hermann, has already followed his boss into retirement. Gerland could be the next to step down—albeit he will be a stone’s throw away at Säbener Straße.

Asked by Bild about his future with the Bayern Campus, Gerland replied, “I think I’ll be here more often again in the future.” Jochen Sauer has run Bayern’s youth alone in the meantime.

How Niko Kovac’s staff takes shape remains to be seen. At present, Kovac’s staff will include at least his younger brother Robert, who served as the elder Kovac’s assistant coach previously with Croatia’s national team at World Cup 2014.