This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

The former World Cup winner Jürgen Klinsmann has replaced sacked Ante Covic as head coach of struggling Hertha Berlin until the end of the season, returning to the Bundesliga for the first time in a decade.

Covic lasted only 12 league matches as his team, who have lost their last four in the league, are currently in 15th place, level on points with 16th-placed Fortuna Düsseldorf who are in the relegation play-off spot.

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Klinsmann, whose most recent job was managing the USA men’s team from 2011 to 2016, last worked in the Bundesliga during a hapless spell at Bayern Munich that lasted less than a season in 2008-09.

The 55-year-old who won the 1990 World Cup as a player with West Germany, has also coached the German national team, leading them to a third-place finish at the 2006 World Cup at home.

He was sacked from his USA post in 2016 after a string of bad results in the early 2018 World Cup qualifiers and the team eventually failed to qualify for the tournament in Russia. He was recently made a member of the Hertha board.