Ferdinand Feldhofer takes over the helm at Cercle Bruges!

Ferdinand Feldhofer takes over the helm at Cercle Bruges!

Ferdinand Feldhofer's Georgia adventure is over as he is now moving to Cercle Bruges. The 45-year-old Austrian was previously a coach at Rapid Vienna from November 2021 to October 2022 and then took over the helm at Dinamo Tbilisi. There he reached the Georgian Cup final, which was lost on penalties. The club also disappointed in the league and only ended up in seventh place. The contract was terminated by mutual agreement oe24.at reported.

Feldhofer has now signed a contract with the Belgians until the end of the current season, with the option of an extension. Cercle Brugge had previously parted ways with coach Miron Muslic, who had headed the team since September 2022. Muslic led the club to fourth place last season, which led to qualification for the Europa League, but relegation to the Conference League followed. After just a week, Feldhofer was given the opportunity to lead the recently poorly performing team, which is in second-to-last place in the table after 17 rounds. “I can absolutely identify with Cercle’s philosophy and am completely convinced of the quality of the group of players,” said Feldhofer in his first statement on the club website transfermarkt.de reported.

Nights challenges in Bruges

Cercle Brugge has crucial games coming up in the coming weeks, including two games in the Conference League and three league games. When Feldhofer was hired, managing director Alexander Vantyghem announced the goal of quickly improving the league position. The new coach takes over a team that also includes the young Dortmund player Paris Brunner, who has been playing at the club on loan since the summer. However, Brunner, a 2023 U17 World and European champion, has disappointed in ten competitive games so far and remains without a goal involvement. Feldhofer therefore has a challenging task ahead of him to get the team back on track in the Belgian league.