After former Head Coach Sergei Rebrov and Ferencváros split yesterday, our club is now announcing who takes over the men’s football team. The new head coach is Peter Stöger (55), who previously led Borussia Dortmund to the Champions League, then achieved the promotion of Köln to the Bundesliga and finally even reached the group stages of the Europa League. He also has won the Austrian championship and domestic cup.
 

In his first interview, he talks about the big challenge, his goals and football philosophy.
 
As a player and coach in Wien, Ferencváros for sure is not unknown. What is your first memory of Fradi?
 
Everyone knows Frencváros in Austria. We all are aware that this is the most famous and successful club in Hungary. As regards to the present, I think this is probably one of the most successful periods in the club's history. The team is very confident after winning the championship and playing in the Champions League. This is a perfect opportunity to coach such a famous team. Also, I need to mention Tibor Nyilasi. When I was a young player, I remember that Nyilasi just left from Austria Wien when I arrived. I received the honor to wear the no. 10 jersey after him. Tibor has been a very popular player of the club, it was a special experience for me to follow his steps.
 
Why did you decide to accept the offer of Fradi and what are your main goals?
I received offers from several countries. From Fradi both Gábor Kubatov and Tamás Hajnal approached me and we had very uplifting discussions. It is a big challenge and opportunity to coach Fradi in such a successful period. I really like working at big, traditional clubs with a special atmosphere and a big crowd. That is why I worked at Borussia Dortmund, Austria Wien and Köln. I want to become champion and play well in the international competitions.
 
It will be especially challenging to take over from Sergei Rebrov, who won three league titles with the team and also played in the Champions League.
Yes, indeed. This is a huge task for me, I also saw the team in the CL. I think the team is on the right path with the right confidence level. Everything is given to live up to the expectations. It wasn’t easy to get promoted with Köln, to lead Dortmund to the Champions League. I like to work and I cannot wait to work with Fradi.
 
Could you summarize your football philosophy? What can the supporters expect from you?
We have the opportunity to play offensive and I know that our supporters expect this. When we fought for the league title at Austria, we played with a similar mentality. The squad was suitable for this and we managed to reach record points and goals in the end. In NB I I also would like to play a very offensive football because I know that we have the best squad and we must win. In Europe we will need a different type of play, we will need to make different decisions and on some matches we will work with counter attacks. It depends a lot on what kinds of opponents we will play against.
 
How will you start your work while the team is still on holiday?
The first step is to talk with every staff member. I will take one of my helpers, Alexander Badé, who I previously worked together with at Köld, Dortmund and Austria Wien. I will also talk with Csaba Máté, the physical coach, the psychologist, the video analysts and all who will work with the team. We speak with Tamás Hajnal multiple times a day and we discuss the plans. I need to collect a lot of information in a short period of time. It is important to prepare well for the new season. I am happy for the opportunity and to join Ferencváros!

Introduction

As player
Peter Stöger was born in Wien and started playing here. He spent his whole career in Austria, where he won the league, the cup and the Super Cup as well. He also won the league with Rapid and in 1996 reached the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup.
 
He played 65 times in the national team with 15 goals. He was a part of the World Cup team and played against Péter Lipcsei, József Keller and Tibor Simon from Fradi.
 
In 1997 he played in a friendly game against Fradi with Marek Penksa who later signed for Fradi.
 
As coach
It was quite obvious that his first professional club as coach will be Austria. In 2005 May he was first nominated as head coach, so he was part of winning the league in season 2005/06 and also the Austrian Cup.
 
He also worked at First Vienna FC, Grazer AK and Wiener Neustadt before returning to Austria. In season 2012/13 they reached great successes and record points. This was enough for raising Köln’s interest who were ready to pay 700 000 EUR and a friendly game to get Stöger as head coach. With only four defeats Köln could return to the Bundesliga where they finished as 12th from 18 in the first season.
 
In the next season Köln took even one more step: they finished 9th which had been the best from the last 24 years. During the season Stöger already received his new contract. In the following season, they reached the top: Köln participated in the Europa League group stage and even defeated Arsenal. However, this has been the last season for Stöger, he left Köln in 2017.
 
Only a few days later, he was already appointed at Borussia Dortmund. He stabilized the black-and-yellow club’s performance and reached the top four. With this they qualified to the Champions League.
 
The next challenge for Stöger came in Wien, at Austria. He took over a team in a difficult spot, they needed to play a play-off for the international matches. They won in both matches over Wolfsberg by the goals of former Fradi player Marco Djuricin.