Victory set to announce familiar adversary as Muscat replacement
Melbourne Victory have found the successor to club great Kevin Muscat, with a worldwide search ultimately resulting in a very familiar face landing a big deal.
A-League
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Former Adelaide United boss Marco Kurz will become Melbourne Victory’s sixth coach, replacing club great Kevin Muscat.
Victory are expected to ratify the appointment on Tuesday, with Kurz beating a group of high-calibre, mainly overseas contenders to sign a multi-year deal.
It’s understood that Kurz had emerged as the clear favourite of Victory’s coach selection panel, which included chairman Anthony Di Pietro, over a week ago but they’ve since been negotiating personal terms.
Ex Melbourne City and Brisbane Roar coach John Aloisi was understood to be the only local option that made the final six-man shortlist after dozens of strong options were considered.
Kurz, 50, has been in talks with Victory since May, when he stayed in Australia for several weeks after his Adelaide contract expired.
He will quickly turn his attention to plugging the many gaps on Victory’s roster after a host of exits, including Keisuke Honda, Georg Niedermeier, Raul Baena, Kosta Barbarouses and possibly James Troisi, who is out of contract.
The German enjoyed some epic duels with Muscat’s Victory in his two seasons at Adelaide before he was controversially released, despite a penalty shootout standing between United and a grand final appearance.
Kurz, who has German Bundesliga experience, was a popular figure with his United players while also upping the training intensity and made two FFA Cup finals, winning in 2018.
A defender who played for Borussia Dortmund, Schalke and 1860 Munich, Kurz carved his coaching teeth at 1860 Munich and Kaiserslautern, where he won promotion with Kaiserslautern in 2009-10.
He later coached Hoffenheim, Ingolstadt and Fortuna Dusseldorf before moving to Australia.
Kurz has been a passionate figure on the A-League sidelines but appeared to fall out with Adelaide’s new owners midway through last season, conceding they lacked a “common vision” before the club announced that they would not extend his contract.
He was in contention for the Brisbane Roar job, before they opted to sign Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler.
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