Latest news with #Ried
The South African
4 days ago
- Sport
- The South African
How much Kaizer Chiefs sold Yusuf Maart for!
Kaizer Chiefs have reportedly agreed to sell one of their key and most prized possessions to a club abroad. Chiefs are currently out in the Netherlands as they begin to step up their preparations for next season. Amakhosi arrived in the European country on Friday and after taking the day to settle, they got to it Saturday. The Chiefs squad was pictured going for an early morning run, similarly to their route in Turkey last season. Then in a video released later on the same day, it was seen that vice-captain Inacio Miguel was leading the side. Upon investigation it was noticed that regular captain Yusuf Maart had not been spotted at all before and during the trip so far. ADVERTISEMENT Maart set to join SV Ried This publication then reported that the cause of his absence was due to an imminent move abroad. Chiefs were believed to have agreed a deal with an unnamed Austrian Bundesliga team for Maart's services. That team then ending up being revealed as newly promoted SV Ried! Now as all parties look to finalise the deal, Soccer-Laduma reports Ried will pay Chiefs R15 million for Maart! 'The deal is as good as done. It's believed that Chiefs have asked for R15 million from SV Ried. They are making good business with these players moving away. They did the same with Teenage Hadebe, Siyabonga Ngezana and recently Thatayaone Ditlhokwe. So they have done the same with Maart. It's believed they are money when least expected,' said a source to the same publication. Chiefs to make R15 million? This comes as a surprise to many as Maart was believed to have just triggered his one-year option with Chiefs. It is a move that sort of mirrors that of former Amakhosi centre-back Siyabonga Ngezana. The player was a divisive figure within the club's fan base but left having finished his last season strong. He went over to Europe in a shock move and has grown in leaps and bounds since. Maybe the same will happen when the midfielder moves to Ried. Thoughts please Amakhosi fans Chiefs fans are you happy with the R15 million your club could get from Ried for Maart? Let us know by clicking on the comment tab. Or by emailing info@ or sending a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. You can also follow @TheSAnews on X and The South African on Facebook for the latest news.
The South African
6 days ago
- Sport
- The South African
Kaizer Chiefs captain Yusuf Maart to SV Ried latest revealed
Kaizer Chiefs captain Yusuf Maart is heading to Europe, with newly promoted Austrian Bundesliga side SV Ried 1912 securing his signature. The midfield maestro will reunite with former Stellenbosch FC winger Antonio van Wyk at the ambitious Austrian outfit. Amakhosi left Maart behind as the squad travelled to the Netherlands for their pre-season camp, following a reported agreement between Chiefs and Ried. Despite the club recently exercising a two-year extension on his contract, the offer from SV Ried proved too good to turn down. SV Ried, also known as SV Guntamatic Ried for sponsorship purposes, earned promotion to Austria's top flight after a successful 2024/2025 campaign in the second tier. Van Wyk played a crucial role in that campaign and now welcomes another South African talent to the fold. The club also boasts South African links in the technical department. Moritz Kossmann, a former coach at Ubuntu Academy and Cape Town City's Diski Challenge team, now serves as Ried's assistant coach and chief analyst. Kossmann moved to Europe in 2024 and has played a pivotal role in integrating South African talent into the Austrian system. SV Ried have already begun their pre-season preparations and are pushing to have Maart available in time for their upcoming friendly. The club hopes to field him in a crucial match against German third-tier outfit Energie Cottbus at the Innviertel Arena on Friday, 18 July. Ried's Bundesliga journey begins with a daunting fixture against RB Salzburg on Saturday, 2 August. The coaching staff view Maart as a key addition to strengthen their midfield ahead of the season. 'I think this change is quite possible. Ried is looking for a strong player for the centre midfield. Will let you know when I have more information but apparently he left the airport just after 6pm yesterday,' said a source close to the deal. Yusuf Maart's move marks another significant step for South African players breaking into European football. With familiar faces around him and a new challenge ahead, all eyes will be on Maart as he looks to make his mark in the Austrian Bundesliga. Will the Kaizer Chiefs star make an impact in Austria? Let us know by leaving a comment below or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How Ried, Lask, Wolfsburg and Frankfurt forged fearless Oliver Glasner
Siegmund Gruber didn't take long to decide Oliver Glasner was his man. 'We were convinced from the moment we met him,' says the chief executive of the Austrian club Lask. 'Oliver started his presentation and it was like that scene in Jerry Maguire: 'You had me at hello.'' It was the summer of 2015 and the future Crystal Palace manager had been persuaded to leave SV Ried, where he had made more than 500 appearances and been named player of the century before taking over as manager the previous year, for their main rivals. What made things worse was that Lask, after going bankrupt under the previous owners and losing their stadium, had just been promoted from the third division, while Ried had finished mid-table in the Austrian Bundesliga. Related: 'If it had been a film, we'd have won': former Palace finalists share Cup memories 'It was a really, really big thing here,' Gruber says. 'No one understood why a coach was going from a team in the top flight to a second division team. But Oliver understood what the project was and he believed in it – he decided to take one step back to try and take two forward. I think this is one of his biggest abilities: that he is able to see a way to keep progressing.' A decade on from his controversial defection, Glasner will lead Palace into their third FA Cup final on Saturday, against Manchester City, hoping to make history by winning the club's first major trophy. Speak to those who have closely followed the career of the 50-year-old who grew up in the village of Riedau – about 20 kilometres from the club where he made his name as a player – and none have been surprised by his impact in south London. 'In Frankfurt, Oliver Glasner is a legend for the Eintracht fans and they still miss him,' says the journalist Christopher Michel, who covered Glasner's 2022 triumph in the Europa League when the German side overcome Barcelona in the quarter-finals and beat Rangers in the final. 'A lot of them still believe that he could have achieved even greater things.' There are no hard feelings at Ried towards Glasner, who met his long-serving assistant Michael Angerschmid when both signed for the club as 18-year-olds. 'When Oliver comes home he's already like an idol for everyone,' says Gruber. As players Glasner and Angerschmid helped Ried win the Austrian Cup in 1998 – the club's first major trophy – before the former left when they were relegated in 2003 and tried his luck with Lask. Injuries meant he played only three times and returned to Ried after a year, eventually winning the cup again in 2011 at the age of 37. A few months later, Glasner was preparing to face the Danish club Brøndby in a Europa League qualifier when he had a brain haemorrhage after a heading drill in training. He was taken to hospital in Copenhagen after pleading with a teammate with whom he was sharing a room to raise the alarm and needed an emergency operation to save his life. 'It's the last thing I can remember,' he said in an interview last month of asking his teammate to call a doctor. Glasner has spoken regularly about how that experience has shaped his fearless approach to management. He was forced to retire but had completed a Diplom-Kaufmann – an MBA or master of business administration – while playing. Glasner joined Red Bull Salzburg initially as a management assistant before being promoted by the sporting director Ralf Rangnick to become Roger Schmidt's assistant to the first team, winning two Austrian titles. When Schmidt went to Bayer Leverkusen, Glasner returned home and his spell in charge of Ried lasted 12 months before Gruber came calling. Gruber recalls how Glasner, who was appointed sporting director and head coach, refused to accept his players would be left with nowhere to train because the club was installing new pitches: 'Oliver took the groundsman's plans home and made his own timeline so at least one of the pitches was always available. He turned everything around.' Lask finished second in Glasner's first season and Gruber came under pressure to sack him. 'One thing I learned from Oliver is that even if results are what are important in football, let's look at the performances,' he says. 'At Crystal Palace, there were a lot of people who questioned him when this season got off to a bad start. But you can see what has happened when he is given time: he will deliver.' Lask were promoted the following season, then qualified for Europe by finishing fourth in the top flight, gaining a reputation for the innovative 3-4-2-1 system that has served Glasner so well since. 'He develops average players,' Gruber says. 'You don't need the best ones in the world. Nearly every player improved.' Glasner, having ended the next season as runners-up to secure Champions League qualification and Lask's highest finish since their only title in 1965, joined Wolfsburg and enjoyed similar success. That spell lasted two seasons despite Glasner leading them to fourth and again qualifying for the Champions League. 'Wolfsburg was a boring club for him,' says Michel, who is the editor of the Absolut Fussball website. 'I think coming to Eintracht Frankfurt really opened his eyes about how cool a club can be.' Glasner initially found things hard at Eintracht. But the club's first win at Bayern Munich in more than 20 years was the catalyst for an unbeaten Europa League campaign that ended with the triumph in Seville . 'It took some time until he found the right system,' says Michel. 'Then they had the perfect mix. It's very typical Glasner that he relies on his key players – he does not change them very much.' Glasner was spotted a few days after the final wearing a sombrero, sunglasses and a shirt bearing the name of Ajdin Hrustic, an Australian who scored one of the penalties in the shootout, in a bar on Ballermann beach, which is favoured by some of the more hedonistic German tourists in Mallorca. Eintracht made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League the following season but Glasner, despite his popularity with supporters, departed in the summer after a difference of opinions with the sporting director, Markus Krösche, over investment in the squad. Their loss has been Palace's gain. Glasner's wife and three children are in Austria and he relies heavily on a backroom staff that includes Angerschmid, Ronald Brunmayr – another former Ried player – and the former Middlesbrough defender Emanuel Pogatetz. 'If he could, Oliver would talk about football for 18 hours every day,' Gruber says. 'He sometimes wouldn't sleep when we had lost a game and stayed up until six in the morning analysing what went wrong. His assistants sometimes help him relax by talking about other things.' Glasner has been a keen skier since childhood but has not had much time to hit the slopes since arriving at Palace in February 2024. A team built very much in his image have emerged from the squad inherited from Roy Hodgson. Glasner has a year on his contract and has held talks about extending. Whatever the outcome at Wembley, Palace will be desperate to show they can match his aspirations. 'When he is convinced about a project and if the club can fulfil his ambitions in terms of signing players then he may want to stay longer at Palace,' says Gruber, who says several 'big clubs' have been in touch asking how to reach his former manager. 'I've said: 'OK but prepare yourself for the meeting. Because Oliver will have questions – not some, I will say a lot!' He is much smarter than a coach who comes in and just does a presentation on how his team will play. And I'm quite sure that won't change with the bigger clubs.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
How Ried, Lask, Wolfsburg and Frankfurt forged fearless Oliver Glasner
Siegmund Gruber didn't take long to decide Oliver Glasner was his man. 'We were convinced from the moment we met him,' says the chief executive of the Austrian club Lask. 'Oliver started his presentation and it was like that scene in Jerry Maguire: 'You had me at hello.'' It was the summer of 2015 and the future Crystal Palace manager had been persuaded to leave SV Ried, where he had made more than 500 appearances and been named player of the century before taking over as manager the previous year, for their main rivals. What made things worse was that Lask, after going bankrupt under the previous owners and losing their stadium, had just been promoted from the third division, while Ried had finished mid-table in the Austrian Bundesliga. Advertisement Related: 'If it had been a film, we'd have won': former Palace finalists share Cup memories 'It was a really, really big thing here,' Gruber says. 'No one understood why a coach was going from a team in the top flight to a second division team. But Oliver understood what the project was and he believed in it – he decided to take one step back to try and take two forward. I think this is one of his biggest abilities: that he is able to see a way to keep progressing.' A decade on from his controversial defection, Glasner will lead Palace into their third FA Cup final on Saturday, against Manchester City, hoping to make history by winning the club's first major trophy. Speak to those who have closely followed the career of the 50-year-old who grew up in the village of Riedau – about 20 kilometres from the club where he made his name as a player – and none have been surprised by his impact in south London. 'In Frankfurt, Oliver Glasner is a legend for the Eintracht fans and they still miss him,' says the journalist Christopher Michel, who covered Glasner's 2022 triumph in the Europa League when the German side overcome Barcelona in the quarter-finals and beat Rangers in the final. 'A lot of them still believe that he could have achieved even greater things.' Advertisement There are no hard feelings at Ried towards Glasner, who met his long-serving assistant Michael Angerschmid when both signed for the club as 18-year-olds. 'When Oliver comes home he's already like an idol for everyone,' says Gruber. As players Glasner and Angerschmid helped Ried win the Austrian Cup in 1998 – the club's first major trophy – before the former left when they were relegated in 2003 and tried his luck with Lask. Injuries meant he played only three times and returned to Ried after a year, eventually winning the cup again in 2011 at the age of 37. A few months later, Glasner was preparing to face the Danish club Brøndby in a Europa League qualifier when he had a brain haemorrhage after a heading drill in training. He was taken to hospital in Copenhagen after pleading with a teammate with whom he was sharing a room to raise the alarm and needed an emergency operation to save his life. 'It's the last thing I can remember,' he said in an interview last month of asking his teammate to call a doctor. Glasner has spoken regularly about how that experience has shaped his fearless approach to management. He was forced to retire but had completed a Diplom-Kaufmann – an MBA or master of business administration – while playing. Glasner joined Red Bull Salzburg initially as a management assistant before being promoted by the sporting director Ralf Rangnick to become Roger Schmidt's assistant to the first team, winning two Austrian titles. When Schmidt went to Bayer Leverkusen, Glasner returned home and his spell in charge of Ried lasted 12 months before Gruber came calling. Gruber recalls how Glasner, who was appointed sporting director and head coach, refused to accept his players would be left with nowhere to train because the club was installing new pitches: 'Oliver took the groundsman's plans home and made his own timeline so at least one of the pitches was always available. He turned everything around.' Advertisement Lask finished second in Glasner's first season and Gruber came under pressure to sack him. 'One thing I learned from Oliver is that even if results are what are important in football, let's look at the performances,' he says. 'At Crystal Palace, there were a lot of people who questioned him when this season got off to a bad start. But you can see what has happened when he is given time: he will deliver.' Lask were promoted the following season, then qualified for Europe by finishing fourth in the top flight, gaining a reputation for the innovative 3-4-2-1 system that has served Glasner so well since. 'He develops average players,' Gruber says. 'You don't need the best ones in the world. Nearly every player improved.' Glasner, having ended the next season as runners-up to secure Champions League qualification and Lask's highest finish since their only title in 1965, joined Wolfsburg and enjoyed similar success. That spell lasted two seasons despite Glasner leading them to fourth and again qualifying for the Champions League. 'Wolfsburg was a boring club for him,' says Michel, who is the editor of the Absolut Fussball website. 'I think coming to Eintracht Frankfurt really opened his eyes about how cool a club can be.' Glasner initially found things hard at Eintracht. But the club's first win at Bayern Munich in more than 20 years was the catalyst for an unbeaten Europa League campaign that ended with the triumph in Seville . 'It took some time until he found the right system,' says Michel. 'Then they had the perfect mix. It's very typical Glasner that he relies on his key players – he does not change them very much.' Advertisement Glasner was spotted a few days after the final wearing a sombrero, sunglasses and a shirt bearing the name of Ajdin Hrustic, an Australian who scored one of the penalties in the shootout, in a bar on Ballermann beach, which is favoured by some of the more hedonistic German tourists in Mallorca. Eintracht made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League the following season but Glasner, despite his popularity with supporters, departed in the summer after a difference of opinions with the sporting director, Markus Krösche, over investment in the squad. Their loss has been Palace's gain. Glasner's wife and three children are in Austria and he relies heavily on a backroom staff that includes Angerschmid, Ronald Brunmayr – another former Ried player – and the former Middlesbrough defender Emanuel Pogatetz. 'If he could, Oliver would talk about football for 18 hours every day,' Gruber says. 'He sometimes wouldn't sleep when we had lost a game and stayed up until six in the morning analysing what went wrong. His assistants sometimes help him relax by talking about other things.' Glasner has been a keen skier since childhood but has not had much time to hit the slopes since arriving at Palace in February 2024. A team built very much in his image have emerged from the squad inherited from Roy Hodgson. Glasner has a year on his contract and has held talks about extending. Whatever the outcome at Wembley, Palace will be desperate to show they can match his aspirations. 'When he is convinced about a project and if the club can fulfil his ambitions in terms of signing players then he may want to stay longer at Palace,' says Gruber, who says several 'big clubs' have been in touch asking how to reach his former manager. 'I've said: 'OK but prepare yourself for the meeting. Because Oliver will have questions – not some, I will say a lot!' He is much smarter than a coach who comes in and just does a presentation on how his team will play. And I'm quite sure that won't change with the bigger clubs.'
The Guardian
08-02-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Miron Muslic: ‘We became refugees overnight. It was just devastating'
As the waves crash against the harbour walls of West Hoe Pier, a Grade II-listed structure beneath Plymouth's Grand Parade, Miron Muslic's mind turns to the sights and sounds of spring 1992 in Bihac, Bosnia. He was a typical nine-year-old boy, happiest having a kickabout or watching He-Man, still on a high from getting a BMX for his birthday months earlier. 'We became refugees overnight,' he says. 'We faced a genocide in the heart of Europe. You fear for your life, you're scared. It was just devastating. We had to grab everything we could put in a bag and move 700km [435 miles]. I don't think I was really aware of what was going on. How could I be?' Muslic, his younger sister, Marinela, and their parents, Camil and Mersada, fled to Austria via Hungary, eventually arriving in the scenic Pertisau am Achensee after a few days on the road via various modes of transport. 'And from there, Austria became our second home,' he says. He enjoyed an amateur playing career and pursued management, born from intrigue in Jürgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund. 'It always felt like they were playing with 13 players. 'How is this possible?'' First there were the baby steps coaching under‑10s in Gmunden, a town an hour east of Salzburg, and last season big strides with Cercle Brugge, whom he led to the Europa League qualifying third round in August. Ralf Rangnick, Roger Schmidt, Diego Simeone and Oliver Glasner have also influenced Muslic. Glasner started his career at Ried, where Muslic also had his first taste of frontline management. This Sunday Muslic's Plymouth side host Liverpool in the FA Cup fourth round. Arne Slot is another major inspiration. 'Growing up, this scenario felt so far away it was almost untouchable. From time to time I might tell my players something from my experience to support and help them. But when they hear my story they don't have to stand there and start crying or feel sorry for me.' Muslic's father worked as a waiter in resort hotels in Tirol, his mother as a cleaner. He recalls the sacrifice his parents made and the struggles they faced to pay electric bills, monthly rent and education fees. The reason he could not go skiing with the rest of his class or attend Wienwoche, an annual festival in Vienna, dawned on him only as he grew older. 'But I had a happy childhood, I never had the feeling I missed out. We moved 13 or 14 times, Marinela and I changed schools 10 or 11 times; we had the life of a nomad family because my parents' work was seasonal. I'm just glad I can recognise real life, because football is a bubble. I always try to relay this message to young players. Most of them only know about this bubble. It is a game we love and a privilege. So don't waste it, don't throw away your talent. Real life is a lot more difficult than playing a football game.' Muslic and his family had to start from scratch. They shared a poky room in Innsbruck, in a block with other refugees from Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey. 'I guess it was the cheapest solution for us to have a roof over our heads,' he says, describing an arrangement with one bed, a wardrobe and a sink. 'My father slept on the floor so Marinela, my mother and I could sleep [on the bed]. We shared the toilet and shower with strangers. There was no kitchen to prepare food; I was used to my mother's cooking: stews, soup, pitta. I was used to singing in the shower, just enjoying it. But you couldn't.' They moved into a one-bedroom flat. Muslic and his sister slept on a sofa bed in the living room. 'For us, it was like we had a mansion, having gone from one room to a little apartment. But the first day I woke up – I've always been an early bird, up at 6am, 7am – I saw a cockroach in the kitchen … I'll never forget the smell. And we thought we were moving somewhere really nice.' It explains Muslic's interest in geopolitics and religion; he estimates he has read 150 books on everything from the former Yugoslavia and the collapse of the Soviet Union to the uprising in China and the history of the United States. He reels off a long list of former US presidents and is so engaging he could probably moonlight as a political leader. He has just finished reading Tariq Ali's Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree. 'It's about the Spanish inquisition,' he says. Other favourites are Ildefonso Falcones' Cathedral of the Sea and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, a story about two young boys from Afghanistan. 'I like to understand why the world is thinking like it is, why the situations are like they are in Europe, America, Asia, the Middle East, to connect things a little bit.' Muslic's primary task after succeeding Wayne Rooney is to revive Plymouth, bottom of the Championship and four points from safety. This weekend, however, provides a different opportunity, with Slot and Liverpool in town. 'When I was working in Belgium [at Cercle] I travelled twice to Rotterdam to watch Slot's Feyenoord. I went on my days off to watch them live because I think he is unbelievable, the complete coach. 'At Feyenoord, his team was very dominant in possession but very intense out of it. It is the same at Liverpool. They don't give you a second to breathe. At one point under pressure everything breaks and that is the moment they intercept, steal the ball and then find one of their forwards capable of doing something special.' He giggles in excitement. The 42-year-old was in the stands for Plymouth's win at Brentford in the previous round – when Kevin Nancekivell, the popular first-team coach awarded the freedom of the city last month, led the team – before heading to Devon for the first time. 'I think the idea of the people in charge of Argyle was to protect me by putting me on a train with 2,500 of the Green Army,' he says, smiling. 'They offered me wine, vodka, beer, cola, water, doughnuts … I only accepted a doughnut.' By that point Muslic was well versed on his new club. He had analysed 10 games in full, dived into the data and wowed the Plymouth hierarchy with a detailed presentation during talks in London. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Neither party could dress up the numbers: no team have conceded more goals across the top four divisions this season and Plymouth have taken 51 points from their past 51 league matches. But victory against West Brom last weekend ended a 15-game run without a league win and Muslic is determined to avoid dropping into League One. 'It is a hell of a task but it's not impossible,' he says. 'All of my life I have been chasing challenges, never running away from things.' How, then, do Plymouth prepare to host arguably the best team in the world? 'With bravery,' Muslic says, citing his players' reaction to earn a point at promotion-chasing Sunderland three days after a 5-0 defeat at home to Burnley. 'Otherwise you cannot compete. I'm not saying with courage and being brave we're going to close the gap between Argyle and Liverpool, but you can get closer and make it more competitive. There is nothing to be afraid of.' Muslic, whose wife, Ensada, and three children, Benjamin, Lejla and Hamza, are in Austria, does not want to waste a moment. His handshake is firm, his words convincing. Even the dead air plays a part; a clip of Muslic's stirring address to Plymouth's squad on his first day went viral. He insists it was not rehearsed but from the heart. 'I think my past defines the person who I am today. I am the same coach as I am a person. I cannot be one coach and also another person. I'm not thinking about it [my past] every single day but is this my drive? Yeah, I have this inside my soul,' he says, tapping his chest. 'I will never forget it.' Another message sticks. 'My father always told me to never go through life with a closed hand,' he says, clenching his left fist. 'Maybe that way you can protect everything but nothing new will come in. If your hand is open, you will lose some things but new things will always enter. That is the mentality for the Liverpool game. I dreamed about watching Liverpool at Anfield but to be in the dugout managing against one of them, that's fantasy. And I don't read fantasy.' There is a flash of lightning outside. 'My first days here were sunny but as soon as I signed my contract, it started raining and everything,' he says, laughing. It will not stop Muslic immersing himself in his new surroundings, aided by the '30 Walks in Devon' cards given to him by the club secretary, Zac Newton, after he shared his love of the outdoors. 'I try to escape, hide, breathe,' he says. 'There are other things in life than preparing a gameplan for the next opponent.'
