csconstantine.com

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP)—Felix Magath is returning immediately to coach Wolfsburg, the club he led to a surprising Bundesliga title in 2009 but is in danger of relegation.

Magath was officially presented Friday, two days after his departure from Schalke, and conducted his first practice session later in the day. His contract runs through mid-2013.

“I was immediately on fire,” Magath said about Wolfsburg’s offer.

Magath was fired from Schalke shortly before the halfway mark in his four-year contract as coach and manager on Wednesday, then he quit as a board member to clear the way for a quick move to Wolfsburg.

Wolfsburg has fallen on hard times. It fired Steve McClaren, the first English coach in the Bundesliga, but the club won only one of five games under his assistant and successor Pierre Littbarski and has dropped to next to last.

Littbarski was Wolfsburg’s third coach since Magath’s departure after Armin Veh and McClaren.

Wolfsburg also has terminated the contract of its manager Dieter Hoeness and Magath will combine the functions of coach and manager, as he did in his first stint in Wolfsburg.

Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz, Wolfsburg’s board chairman, said Hoeness and Wolfsburg parted company by mutual agreement.

Wolfsburg, backed financially by the giant automaker Volkswagen, was three points ahead of bottom-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach and plays in Stuttgart, one of Magath’s former clubs, on Saturday in the Bundesliga. There are eight games left in the season.

“It’s a precarious situation,” Garcia Sanz said.

Stuttgart also is in danger of dropping back into the relegation zone.

“Magath will prevent us from getting relegated,” he said.

Magath was forced out of Schalke in a dispute with club chairman Clemens Toennies, despite taking the club to the quarterfinals of the Champions League and the final of the German Cup. Schalke was only 10th in the Bundesliga, however.

Besides the 2009 title with Wolfsburg, Magath also swept the German double two consecutive seasons with Bayern Munich before getting fired.

Labels: coach, Felix, Magath, returns, Wolfsburg