Felix Magath leaves Wolfsburg

The much rumoured move of Felix Magath to Schalke has been confirmed. The fifty-five year-old coach who joined Wolfsburg in June 2007 will be leaving at the end of the season before taking charge of the Gelsenkirchen based club.

Under Felix Magath's leadership die Wölfe have roared to unprecedented levels of success and have their first Bundesliga championship within reach as they enter the final four weeks of the campaign.

In a prepared statement he noted:

"We have achieved our sporting targets far more quickly than formulated when I took on the post in summer 2007. The team is young, still capable of developing and perspectively tied to the club."

VfL Wolfsburg board chairman Hans-Dieter Pötsch was gracious in announcing the decision:

"We really have to be very thankful to Mr. Magath for the development which has taken place at the club over the past two years, and for the position we are in now with four games to go until the end of the season. He has realised extraordinary sporting success with VfL in a very short space of time. We wish him all the best in his future coaching career."

Wir sind Herrn Magath für die in den vergangenen zwei Jahren eingeleitete Entwicklung schon zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt, vier Spieltage vor Saisonende, zu großem Dank verpflichtet. Er hat innerhalb sehr kurzer Zeit außerordentlichen sportlichen Erfolg mit dem VfL realisiert. Für seine weitere Trainer-Karriere wünschen wir ihm alles Gute.“

Of rumoured candidates to replace him are Marco van Basten, who resigned from Ajax today, Frank Rijkaard, Ralf Rangnick and Armin Veh.