'Top quality' Maric appointed assistant at Leeds United
Written by Training Ground Guru — July 30, 2022
AUSTRIAN René Maric has been appointed as the new Assistant Head Coach of Leeds United.
The 29-year-old replaces Frankie Schiemer, who arrived along with Head Coach Jesse Marsch at the end of February. Schiemer has now moved to a role “as a coaching consultant from afar”.
Maric has a fascinating CV. He started his coaching career at TSU Handenberg at the age of 17 before studying psychology at University. He was one of main writers for the tactical analysis website Spielverlagerung, which helped to open doors into professional scouting and coaching.
Maric rose to prominence at Red Bull Salzburg, initially as a youth coach in 2016 and then as Assistant Head Coach from 2017 to 2019. Leeds already have a heavy Red Bull influence, with Marsch having worked for New York Red Bulls and Red Bull Salzburg and assistant Ewan Sharp for the New York side.
At Salzburg Maric worked with manager Marco Rose, helping them to reach the Europa League semi-final, before the duo moved to Borussia Monchengladbach at the start of 2019/20.
In 2021/22 they joined Borussia Dortmund but, despite finishing second, were sacked at the end of the season.
Marsch said: “I’ve known René for a number of years and we’ve stayed in contact for a long time now. While we haven’t worked together before, we do know each other well and I believe he is the perfect fit for an Assistant Head Coach.
“Our footballing philosophies are very similar and he will be a really welcome addition to the team, working alongside Mark Jackson, Ewan Sharp and Cameron Toshack.”
Director of Football Victor Orta added: “I am really pleased to see René pick us over several other options he had to choose from across Europe.
“We interviewed numerous candidates over the summer but as soon as we knew René was available and interested, we set our sights on bringing him in to support Jesse. He’s a top-quality coach and I believe he can create successful partnerships alongside the exciting staff.”