Leverkusen Searches for New Head Coach After Filipe Luís Decision

Bayer Leverkusen’s search for a new head coach has taken a sharp turn. The club’s first-choice target, Flamengo boss Filipe Luís, is now off the table, forcing sporting directors Simon Rolfes and Fernando Carro to reopen their list of alternatives.

Sky reports that Leverkusen had moved decisively for the Brazilian-based coach, attracted by a haul of eight trophies in three years and a reputation for building winning habits at speed. The decision-makers at the BayArena opted for the “successful Flamengo coach” as their primary candidate, a bold move towards a fresh tactical identity and a hard reset after a flat season.

That route is now blocked. So the spotlight swings back to “Options B and C”.

Glasner and Iraola Back in the Frame

Two names dominate the conversation: Oliver Glasner and Andoni Iraola.

Both Crystal Palace’s Glasner and AFC Bournemouth’s Iraola have already made one crucial decision about their futures — neither will extend their current contracts and both will be free from 1 July. For clubs like Leverkusen, that availability is gold.

Glasner’s stock has rarely been higher. On Wednesday, in what doubled as his farewell match with Crystal Palace, he delivered yet another European triumph. Two years after his sensational Europa League win with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, the Austrian added a second continental title, guiding Palace to a 1-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano in the Conference League final. Different club, different league, same outcome: a trophy in his hands.

Iraola, meanwhile, has impressed in the Premier League with Bournemouth, dragging the club into a more modern, aggressive style that has drawn admirers across Europe. He brings pressing intensity, tactical clarity and the sense of a project that can grow quickly if given the right structure.

Leverkusen, according to reports, have “concrete options B and C”. Those options now sit firmly back on the agenda.

Hjulmand Era Nears Its End

Officially, nothing has changed at Leverkusen. No club statement. No farewell message. No press conference. Unofficially, everyone knows how this story ends.

The club is widely expected to part ways with head coach Kasper Hjulmand this summer, even though his contract runs until 2027. The 54-year-old Dane arrived in difficult circumstances, stepping in shortly after the season began when Erik ten Hag’s relationship with the sporting management, parts of the coaching staff and sections of the squad collapsed at speed.

Hjulmand did what he was hired to do at first: he steadied the ship. The chaos eased, the dressing room calmed, the season stopped feeling like a freefall. But at a club with Leverkusen’s ambition, stability alone doesn’t buy time.

The results told their own story.

No Champions League qualification.

A DFB-Pokal semi-final exit to Bayern.

A Champions League last-16 elimination at the hands of Arsenal.

A sixth-place finish in the Bundesliga.

Respectable. Not disastrous. But not enough.

Leverkusen rarely truly convinced. Performances often lacked edge and imagination, and several high-priced signings failed to justify the money spent on them. For a club that sees itself as a permanent Champions League presence and a domestic challenger, that combination is lethal for any coach.

So a reset looms. A new head coach, a new voice, a new tactical direction. The only question is whether that voice belongs to Glasner, Iraola, or a name still kept carefully out of the headlines.

Monaco Also Hit the Reset Button

Leverkusen are not alone in planning a summer overhaul on the touchline.

AS Monaco are also preparing to change their head coach after just over six months. Sebastien Pocognoli, appointed in October, could not drag the club over the line when it mattered most. Back-to-back defeats to Lille and Strasbourg at the end of the season cost Monaco a place in Europe, and with it, likely cost Pocognoli his job.

Two clubs, two ambitious projects, both staring at the same decision: who leads them into a season they cannot afford to waste?