Hoffenheim have confirmed that their former assistant manager Alfred Schreuder will return to the club to take over from Julian Nagelsmann as head coach next season.

There had been plenty of anticipation over who would replace Nagelsmann, after it was announced ahead of the 2018/19 campaign that the 31-year-old would leave for RB Leipzig in the summer.

In the end the club have gone for continuity by appointing Schreuder, who is currently assistant manager at Ajax and served in the same role at Hoffenheim from October 2015 until January 2018.

“We worked intensively and calmly on implementing an optimal solution for us,” Hoffenheim sporting director Alexander Rosen said.

“Alfred knows our structures and the majority of the team, and has also significantly contributed to our success in recent years through his outstanding expertise and his strategic, clear, and communicative way of working.”

Schreuder has enjoyed considerable success since leaving Hoffenheim, working under former Bayern Munich reserve team boss Erik ten Hag to help Ajax reach the quarter-finals of this season’s UEFA Champions League by knocking out defending champions Real Madrid.

“I’m really looking forward to the job in Hoffenheim and I’m aware of how big a challenge it is, but that’s also why I find it particularly appealing,” the 46-year-old Dutchman said.

Alfred Schreuder worked under Julian Nagelsmann (l-r.) in his first spell at Hoffenheim. - imago images / Horstmüller

Schreuder has signed a deal that will keep him at Hoffenheim until June 2022, and the club’s majority shareholder, Dietmar Hopp, is delighted with the appointment.

“Alfred Schreuder has already done a brilliant job as assistant manager with Hoffenheim, and also made a lasting impression on people,” Hopp told the Hoffenheim website.

“Immediately after Julian’s departure became known, Alfred Schreuder was already among a very small number of managerial candidates for us. I’m really pleased that it has worked out.

“He has already demonstrated that he believes in a brand of football that is also a feature of Hoffenheim: courageous, fresh and attacking.”

Nagelsmann, who will take over from Ralf Rangnick at Leipzig next season, became the Bundesliga’s youngest ever head coach when he took the reins at Hoffenheim as a 28-year-old in February 2016. He soon steered the club clear of relegation trouble before leading them to fourth in the Bundesliga in his first full season in charge and a third-place finish last year.

On the German’s watch, Hoffenheim qualified for European football for the first time in their history, and featured in last season’s UEFA Europa League group stage before Nagelsmann became the youngest head coach in Champions League history earlier this season.

Hoffenheim are currently ninth in the Bundesliga, four points off the European places.

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