Adolf "Adi" Hütter (German pronunciation:[ˈʔadiˈhʏtɐ]; born 11 February 1970) is an Austrian professional football coach and former player who is the head coach of Ligue 1 club Monaco.
In 2000, Hütter joined Grazer AK again, where he won the 2001–02 Austrian Cup. After two years, he joined second division team Kapfenberger SV. In 2005, Hütter joined the second team of Red Bull Salzburg in the third division. Here, he was a leading player and won the 2006–07 Regionalliga West championship with the team, which also meant promotion to the second division. Hütter decided to end his playing career in August 2007 due to a persistent Achilles tendon injury, and became assistant coach of the Red Bull Salzburg Juniors.[1]
After ending his playing career in 2007, Hütter became assistant coach of Red Bull Salzburg Juniors. He was appointed as the head coach of the Red Bull Juniors for the 2008–09 season, which he finished with a record of 13 wins, seven draws, and 15 losses.[5]
In July 2009, he became head coach of SCR Altach, which had just been relegated to the second division, with the goal of leading them back to the Bundesliga.[6] In the 2009–10 season, Altach lost to FC Pasching in the first round of the Austrian Cup and finished third in the league. In the 2010–11 season, Altach reached the round of 16 of the Austrian Cup and finished second in the league.[7] After narrowly missing out on promotion two consecutive seasons, Altach was second in the league at the end of March 2012, eight matchdays before the end of the 2011–12 season. After a 0–2 loss to First Vienna FC on 3 April 2012, Hütter was sacked by Altach, as the club was of the opinion that a change in leadership was needed to secure promotion.[8] However, Altach did not achieve promotion under Hütter's successor Edi Stöhr, again finishing the season in second place.
In April 2012, league rivals SV Grödig announced Hütter as head coach starting from 1 June 2012, replacing Heimo Pfeifenberger. Hütter signed a two-year contract.[9][10] In the 2012–13 season, he won the second division with Grödig, securing promotion to the Bundesliga. In the 2013–14 season, which was Hütter's first season as a manager in the top-flight of Austrian football, he led Grödig to a third place finish in the league after a 3–3 draw on the final matchday against Wacker Innsbruck, securing qualification for the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League.[11] Grödig offered him a new contract at the end of the season, but Hütter declined the offer and left the club in summer 2014.[12]
Hütter became the head coach of reigning Bundesliga champion Red Bull Salzburg for the 2014–15 season. He succeeded Roger Schmidt, who moved to Bayer Leverkusen.[13] In his only season with Salzburg, he won the double consisting of the league title and the Austrian Cup.[14] Despite these successes, Hütter and Salzburg terminated their contract by mutual consent in June 2015.[15][16][17]
In September 2015, Hütter took over as head coach of Swiss Super League side Young Boys.[18] In both of his first two seasons, the club from Bern finished the league in second place. In the 2017–18 season, he led the club to its first league title since 1986, breaking the winning streak of FC Basel, which had previously won eight consecutive league titles.[19] Hütter also reached the final of the 2017–18 Swiss Cup with Young Boys, which was lost 1–2 against FC Zürich.[20]
Eintracht Frankfurt
On 16 May 2018, Hütter was confirmed to be Eintracht Frankfurt's new head coach for the 2018–19 season, succeeding Niko Kovač.[21][22] He signed a three-year contract until June 2021.[23] His first competitive match was the 2018 German Super Cup on 12 August 2018, which was lost 0–5 to Bayern Munich.[24] On 18 August 2018, Eintracht Frankfurt were knocked out in the first round of the German Cup by fourth division team SSV Ulm.[25] The start to the league season was also poor, with just four points in five matchdays, but Hütter was able to turn the negative trend around, as Eintracht did not lose in the next eleven games, winning ten, in the Bundesliga and Europa League.[26] In the Europa League, Frankfurt won all six matches in the group stage and won against Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan and Benfica in the knockout phase. Their run lasted until the semi-final, in which they drew twice and lost on penalties against Chelsea. At the end of the season, Hütter was voted by readers of German newspaper Bild as Coach of the Year while Eintracht Frankfurt was voted as the Team of the Year.[27] The union of professional football players also voted Hütter as Coach of the Year.[28]
In the 2019–20 Bundesliga season, Frankfurt finished in ninth place in the league. They also reached the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal. In the Europa League, they finished second in the group stage, with notable wins including a 2–1 away victory against Arsenal.[29] However, their journey ended in the round of 16 with a defeat against Basel.[30]
Ahead of the 2020–21 season, Frankfurt extended the contracts of Hütter and his assistant coaches for two more years until June 2023.[31] Despite initially holding a Champions League position, the team ultimately finished the league in fifth place and qualified for the Europa League once again.
Borussia Mönchengladbach
On 13 April 2021, Hütter announced that he would leave Frankfurt using a buy-out clause and join Borussia Mönchengladbach for the 2021–22 season.[32][33] Gladbach was ranked 14th after the first half of the season, just three points above the relegation zone. The results stabilized in 2022, with Gladbach reaching seventh place in the second half of the season. Overall, the club finished on tenth place, two positions lower than in the previous campaign under Marco Rose. On 14 May 2022, Hütter announced he was to leave Mönchengladbach after the season's conclusion by mutual consent with the club's leadership.[34] He was succeeded by Daniel Farke.[35]
A highlight of Hütter's one season came in the second round of the DFB-Pokal, where Mönchengladbach won 5–0 at home to Bayern Munich on 27 October 2021. Bayern had scored in each of their previous 85 games, and suffered their biggest defeat since 1978.[36]
Monaco
On 4 July 2023, Hütter signed a two-year deal at Ligue 1 team Monaco, which had not qualified for a European competition in the previous season, succeeding Philippe Clement.[37] His debut was a 4–2 win at Clermont on 13 August.[38] He guided the club to a runner-up finish in the 2023–24 season, and qualification to the Champions League group stage for the first time since 2018–19.[39] On 5 October 2024, after winning 2–1 against Rennes, Hütter's AS Monaco went into first place ahead of PSG for the first time.[40]
Personal life
Hütter is married and has one daughter.[41] Hütter's grandmother persuaded his parents to name their son Adolf, in memory of his uncle, who died at the age of 27 in a rock avalanche. However, he is always called by his nickname "Adi".[42]
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