Bayer Leverkusen Seeks New Coach After Filipe Luis Declines

Bayer Leverkusen thought they had their man. Filipe Luis was the first choice, the preferred option, the coach the club’s hierarchy wanted to front their next cycle.

Sky reports that the Bayer 04 sporting leadership, Simon Rolfes and Fernando Carro, initially moved decisively for the Flamengo boss, whose record in Brazil – eight trophies in three years – made him an obvious target for a club desperate to turn promise into silverware. A coach who wins that often, that quickly, usually doesn’t stay on the market for long.

This time, he won’t be coming to the Bundesliga at all. With that path now closed, Leverkusen are back to their “concrete options B and C” – and the search for a new head coach has been thrown wide open again.

Glasner and Iraola back in play

Two names sit at the top of that secondary list: Oliver Glasner and Andoni Iraola.

Both have been linked heavily with Leverkusen. Both have already decided not to extend their current deals. Both will be free from 1 July.

Glasner’s stock rose again this week. On Wednesday night, in his farewell match with Crystal Palace, he delivered another European trophy, adding the UEFA Europa Conference League to his remarkable Europa League triumph with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022. Palace edged Rayo Vallecano 1-0 in the final, another tight, disciplined European performance under the Austrian.

A coach with two European titles in three years does not stay unemployed for long. The timing suits Leverkusen perfectly.

Iraola, meanwhile, has built a reputation at AFC Bournemouth as a modern, front-foot tactician, comfortable in high-intensity football and unafraid to impose his ideas. His decision not to renew has already put several clubs on alert. Leverkusen are firmly among them.

Hjulmand era nears its end

All of this points in one direction: Leverkusen are preparing to move on from Kasper Hjulmand.

No official statement has been made, but within the club and across the league it is widely expected that the 54-year-old Dane will leave this summer, despite a contract that runs until 2027.

Hjulmand arrived in difficult circumstances, taking over shortly after the season had already started. Erik ten Hag’s relationship with the sporting management, parts of his staff and sections of the squad had broken down at speed, leaving a fractured dressing room and a season already veering off course.

Hjulmand steadied things. Results improved enough to avoid crisis talk. Yet when the dust settled, the balance sheet told a harsher story.

Leverkusen missed out on Champions League qualification.

They fell in the DFB-Pokal semi-finals to Bayern.

Arsenal knocked them out in the last 16 of the Champions League.

The Bundesliga campaign ended in sixth place. Respectable on paper, but nowhere near the ambition of a club that had backed its squad with serious investment.

The performances rarely convinced. The football felt laboured too often, short of the tempo and clarity demanded at the top end of the German game. Several expensive signings never truly justified their transfer fees or their status. The sense grew that this was a team stuck between ideas, not fully committed to any of them.

In that context, the decision to plan a fresh start on the bench feels inevitable rather than ruthless.

New cycle, new identity

For Rolfes and Carro, the next appointment is about more than just results. It is about identity.

Glasner offers a proven knockout pedigree and a track record of quickly shaping resilient, competitive sides. Iraola brings a more daring, aggressive style that could ignite a squad in need of energy and direction. Filipe Luis, the first choice now out of reach, would have offered a different, more South American flavour built on his trophy-laden spell at Flamengo.

The profile is clear: a strong personality, a defined game model, and the ability to squeeze more out of a talented but underperforming group.

Leverkusen have been close without breaking through too many times in recent years. This appointment has to shift that narrative.

Monaco also pull the trigger

The coaching carousel is not spinning in Germany alone.

AS Monaco are preparing for a change of their own after just over six months with Sebastien Pocognoli in charge. He took over in October, tasked with stabilising and pushing the club back into European competition.

For a while, that target looked within reach. Then the season’s final act turned brutal.

Back-to-back defeats to Lille and Strasbourg, right at the death, dragged Monaco out of the European places. The consequences were immediate. Missing out on continental football has triggered another reset on the Côte d’Azur, with Pocognoli now set to make way.

Two ambitious clubs, two benches about to be vacant, and a limited pool of elite coaches available from 1 July.

Leverkusen and Monaco know the stakes. The next handshake on the touchline could define their seasons – and perhaps their direction for years to come.