Taking over a smaller club with good potential and making some results can certainly make the career of any coach look more appealing. We are expecting this to be the case with the latest German-Lithuanian cooperation. Thorsten Fink is a specialist with a great club track record who gained his experience playing in and coaching several professional clubs from Germany and Austria, most notably “Bayern”, before being appointed as the head coach of Riga FC. As an expert with both the field experience and coaching expertise, future for Riga FC is looking very bright!
About Riga FC
Riga FC is a football club from Latvia that currently competes in the Latvian Higher League and is sponsored by Betsafe Likmes. Even though the club was founded only 8 years ago, in 2014, as a replacement for Skonto FC, it has already won several domestic trophies and leagues, like the Latvian First League which secured them the position in the Higher League, Latvian Football Cup, as well as Latvian Higher League three years in a row, from 2018 to 2020. The club already appeared in the Champions League and Europa League with mixed success, but with Thorsten’s experience from winning the UEFA Champions League in 2001 with Bayern, the club will hopefully see many more minutes in European championships. We’re looking forward to seeing all the good work Thorsten Fink puts into Riga FC.
Thorsten Fink’s Playing and Coaching Career Summary
His football player career began in Roland Marten and Borussia Dortmund in Germany. In 1989, he joined Wattenscheid 09, a less-known club that entered German Bundesliga the same year, and during that period, performed the best in the club’s history. After leaving Wattenscheid 09, he joined Karlsruher SC. Thanks to his brilliant performance, at the highest point of his football playing career, he was invited to play for Bayern. In 2001, Bayern won the UEFA Champions League. On top of that, Fink won Bundesliga, German Cup, and German League cup several times.
Fink’s Coaching career began in 2006, not long after he retired from professional football, and so far was based mostly in Europe. Soon, he joined the ranks of Salzburg Red Bull, where he took care of the reserve team. Two years later, Ingolstadt called him for the position of head coach, which he accepted. One year after that, Fink moved to Switzerland where he coached Basel. This is where he made his first results as a coach, winning the Swiss championship twice, as well as the Swiss Cup. From there, Fink returned to Germany and took over the coaching spot for Hamburger SV. His career continued in APOEL, Austria Wien and later the Swiss Grasshoppers. In 2019, he briefly went over to Japan to coach the Vissel Kobe, leading the club to their first two trophies in history.
New Team of Experts for New Challenges Ahead
Fink has put together a team that has a nice ring in the ears of all football experts. His right hand will be Sebastian Hahn, a 46-year-old German with whom he worked closely in four different clubs – APOEL, Austrian Wien, Grasshopper and Vissel Kobe. Goalkeepers will be trained by Dragoslav Jevric, a former goalkeeper for Yugoslavia, and later Serbia and Montenegro’s national team. Athletic coaching will be taken over by Nikola Vidovic, former Croatian kickboxing champion who worked closely with Fink for a good part of his career.
