He won the Premier League with Leicester City as a left-back in 2015/16. Nine and a half years later, Christian Fuchs is joining what is currently England’s worst professional club.
Former Premier League professional Christian Fuchs has taken over as coach of Newport County, who play in the fourth tier of English football. According to the club on Thursday, the 39-year-old Austrian signed a “long-term contract.” Fuchs sensationally won the Premier League title with Leicester City in 2016 and most recently worked as assistant coach at Charlotte FC in Major League Soccer. Head coach Dean Smith’s team, which has previously coached Aston Villa in England’s top flight, narrowly lost to New York City FC (0-1/7-6 on penalties/1-3) in the first round of the MLS playoffs around two weeks ago.
Fuchs ended his playing career in Charlotte in early 2023, during which he also played for VfL Bochum, 1. FSV Mainz 05, and FC Schalke 04. In total, he played 183 Bundesliga matches (ten goals).
His new employer Newport is at the bottom of League Two with three wins from 16 games, making it the lowest-ranked professional club in England at present. Coach David Hughes had to leave the South Wales club after last weekend. Now Fuchs is expected to “move the club forward,” as chairman Huw Jenkins explained in a statement. “Christian is ambitious and wants to become a Premier League coach one day. We believe he shares our firm conviction about what is possible at Newport County.”
Fuchs played 78 international matches for Austria and also captained the ÖFB team. This is the first head coaching job for the native of Lower Austria. Newport will play their first game under Fuchs on Saturday (4 p.m.) against promoted Oldham Athletic, who are in 15th place in the 24-team league.
