New Jersey-born Pellegrino Matarazzo, who played college ball at Columbia University, is the new head coach of VfB Stuttgart, which is aiming to return to the Bundesliga firstdivision after being relegated last season. Matarazzo replaces Tim Walter, who arrived at this season’s start.
Although VfB Stuttgart is in third-place, the club that had beenin the top tier for all but two seasons in last 42 years fired Walter after in the first half of this season VfB suffered five defeats, including a 6-2 loss to Hamburg SV
The 42-year-oldMatarazzo was born in Wayne, New Jersey. At Columbia — where his brothers, Leopoldo and Antonio also played — Matarazzo was a two-time all-Ivy League selection.
In 2002, embarked on a decade-long playing career in the German lower divisions.
After stints with Bad Kreuznach, SV Wehen, Münster and Wattenscheid, he started coaching during thelast phase of his playing career at FC Nuremberg.
In 2005, Matarazzo began taking the German DFB coaching courses and connected with Julian Nagelsmann, now the coach offirst-place Bundesliga club RB Leipzig after widely acclaimed success with 1899 Hoffenheim.
After serving as Nuremberg’s assistant coach of the U-23s, head coach of the U-17s — guiding themto a third-place finish in the national championship — and head coach of the U-19s, Matarazzo joined Nagelsmann at Hoffenheim in 2017 as U-17 head coach and in 2018 as assistant coach of the firstteam.
He was assistant under Hoffenheim’s current coach Alfred Schreuder when hired on Monday by VfB Stuttgart.
This is big news. I hope he gets them promoted.