Jauk cheers

What Parensen says about Sturm’s coaching question!

Goal scorer Mika Biereth has once again played his way into the line-up.(Bild: GEPA)

Champions, cup winners and comeback in the Champions League after 23 years! Sturm president Christian Jauk looks back on the year 2024 with pride. The coaching question at Sturm is still to be decided this year, and head of sport Michael Parensen has words of praise for interim coach Jürgen Säumel.

Sturm have played an impressive 47 games this year - and achieved historic results in the process. Championship title, cup win, first Champions League appearance in 23 years. "This year will go down in history," beamed Sturm president Christian Jauk after the end of the year at the "premier class match" in Lille. "All our dreams have come true. There were so many emotions, so many heartfelt situations. But it will take some time to actually realize these successes," said the Sturm boss, who was disappointed that the next point was not added to Sturm's Champions League account in France: "The team would have deserved a point against this world-class team."

President Christian Jauk (2nd from left) is proud of what has been achieved.(Bild: GEPA)

The players are now off on vacation. The question is whether they will all return. Transfer rumors keep popping up. One candidate would be Mika Biereth, who scored 14 goals in 25 games in the fall and also scored in Lille.

Interim coach Jürgen Säumel has a good chance of becoming a permanent solution.(Bild: GEPA)

It has not yet been decided who will be head coach when training starts on January 3. Interim coach Jürgen Säumel, however, has done some excellent advertising on his own behalf and would like to continue in the job himself.

"We will now take two or three days off and take our time to make a decision. Such an important personnel decision has to be carefully considered," said neo-sporting director Michael Parensen. "The only thing that's certain is that a decision will be made by the start of training. Anything else makes no sense."

Prompt decision
However, it can be assumed that the coaching issue will be resolved soon. In any case, the German is impressed with Säumel's work: "Jürgen has continued Christian Ilzer's work seamlessly. The cooperation with him has been very good over the last few weeks. The results are also consistently positive. In the end, it certainly won't be down to the results if the decision is different." However, there is currently a lot to be said for the former team player and permanent solution Jürgen Säumel, who has provided plenty of arguments for a commitment in the last few games.