It was already on the horizon, now it's official: Horst Heldt is returning to the Bundesliga! The 54-year-old will succeed Oliver Ruhnert as Sports Director at Union Berlin. However, Ruhnert will not leave the Iron Men, but will return to his old role as chief scout “at his own request”. The FCU announced on Tuesday evening that the move will officially take place from July 1st.
Ruhnert moved to Union Berlin in 2017 and worked for the Eisernen as chief scout for almost a year before being promoted to sports director. Under the 52-year-old, Union achieved promotion to the Bundesliga and qualified for the Champions League last season. After a disappointing 23/24 season, in the end we managed to stay in the league.
“I look back on the last seven years with great pride. We have joined forces here at Union to achieve undreamt-of successes and are now facing the 6th Bundesliga season. All of that took a lot of strength, but it is a time that I will never forget “A special thank you goes to the entire team, without whom these successes would not have been possible,” said Ruhnert.
“We will start the new season with a new personnel structure. With Horst Heldt we were able to gain an experienced Bundesliga manager who will join us in the summer, but is already involved in all planning. Oliver Ruhnert will remain with us and will “We will work closely with Horst Heldt and advance squad planning for the new season,” explained FCU President Dirk Zingler.
“We would like to thank Oliver Ruhnert for his commitment over the last few years. His work has played a major role in our club's sporting successes. I am happy that we can continue to count on him and look forward to working with Horst Heldt and him,” he added.
“Union has been a stable force in German professional football for many years; a quiet, well-run club. The development of the last few years has been extremely rapid and extremely impressive. It is not surprising that sometimes a difficult season has to be overcome. That “It's part of establishing ourselves in the Bundesliga and can prove to be very valuable in the future. I'm proud to be working for 1. FC Union Berlin in the future and will bring my experience here to be successful together,” explained Heldt.
After his positions as sports director at VfB Stuttgart, Schalke 04, Hannover 96 and 1. FC Köln, the Eisernen from Berlin-Köpenick will be the fifth traditional club that the ex-professional takes over.
