Hoffenheim are set to sack their American head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo.
The German side have won just one of their last six matches in all competitions and are 15th in the Bundesliga, just one place above the relegation play-off spot.
The 46-year-old took charge of Hoffenheim in February 2023 and has won 24 of his 68 matches at the helm, with the club qualifying for the Europa League this season.
Hoffenheim sporting director Andreas Schicker said after Sunday’s 0-0 draw at Augsburg that the club’s nine-point tally from 10 league games put them in “clear danger of relegation”.
“This is not enough in the end,” said Schicker. “We have to sit down together and analysis everything. That would have been the plan anyway, regardless of the result.”
When asked to comment on his future, Matarazzo told DAZN: “I’m not afraid of anything, whatever is coming, is coming. I’m doing my job as well as I can, I can’t influence anything beyond that.”
Raised in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, Matarazzo spent four years at the Columbia Lions varsity team before moving to Germany in 2000.
He had a 10-year playing career before moving into coaching, initially at Nuremberg’s academy before joining Hoffenheim under former head coach Julian Nagelsmann, now the Germany national team coach.
Matarazzo spent three years as Stuttgart’s head coach between 2019 and 2022 before his appointment at Hoffenheim last year, leading them to a top-seven Bundesliga finish.
Hoffenheim are yet to announce a replacement, but now have a 13-day break until they host RB Leipzig upon the Bundesliga’s resumption following the international break.
(Sebastian Widmann/Getty Images)
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