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Ferdinand Feldhofer
Personal information
Date of birth	23 October 1979 (age 45)
Place of birth	Vorau, Austria
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	Cercle Brugge (head coach)
Youth career
	TuS Vorau
	TSV Pöllau
Senior career*
Years	Team
1998–2002	Sturm Graz
2002–2005	Rapid Wien
2005–2008	Wacker Innsbruck
2008–2013	Sturm Graz
International career
2002–2007	Austria
Managerial career
2015–2019	SV Lafnitz
2019–2021	Wolfsberger AC
2021–2022	SK Rapid Wien
2024	Dinamo Tbilisi
2024–	Cercle Brugge
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ferdinand Feldhofer (born 23 October 1979) is an Austrian football coach and a former player. He is the current head coach of Belgian Pro League club Cercle Brugge.^[1]

Career

Club

Feldhofer started his career as a youth player with TuS Vorau and TSV Pöllau in Styria before joining Sturm Graz with whom he won the double in 1999. He moved on a free to Rapid Wien in 2002, after refusing to extend his deal with Sturm and making the way to court because he was subsequently put back in Sturm's amateur side, Feldhofer ended up winning the case. He clinched another league title with Rapid in 2005 and then left to become skipper of Wacker Innsbruck. In summer 2008 he decided to return to Sturm, where he signed a 3-year contract.

National team

He made his debut for Austria in a March 2002 friendly match against Slovakia and went on to earn 13 caps scoring one goal in a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago in Vienna. His last international was a March 2007 friendly match against Ghana. He was not considered for Austria's Euro 2008 squad.

Managerial career

After acquiring his UEFA A Licence in June 2012, Feldhofer was a group manager at the "LAZ Weiz" in Weiz from 2013-2014. After that, from 2014 to 2015, he was working as an individual trainer for the ÖFB at the LAZ Styria. On the 10th of October, Feldhofer was revealed as manager of Austrian Regionalliga club SV Lafnitz and two days later started his work there. He was able to win the Austrian Regionalliga Central with the club, getting promoted to the Austrian 2. Liga by doing so. In October 2019, Feldhofer acquired his UEFA Pro Licence, the highest of Coach licences which is required in order to coach professional teams.

In December 2019, Feldhofer became coach of Austrian Bundesliga club Wolfsberger AC. Under him, the club was able to record what probably were the biggest achievements in the history of the club to date. At the end of the 2019/20 season, the Wolfsberger club stood at third place, which was the best season result in the history of the club, with this they were also able to immediately qualify for the Europa League for the second time. In 2020/21, the club was able to pass the group stage of said competition for the first time in club history but their run was put to a halt after two ties against Tottenham Hotspur. In the league however, the club was struggling to find continuous wins as they were, among other problems, missing a goalscorer of high caliber with Shon Weissman having departed to Real Valladolid. These smaller problems were however put in the background after it became public that Feldhofer had seemingly repeatedly been having fights with club skipper Michael Liendl putting him on the bench a few times before finally leaving him, together with two other leading players Michael Novak and Christopher Wernitznig, out of the match-day squad before their cup-clash against LASK, the game ended in a 0-1 loss after added time and Feldhofer decided to step down from his role as club-coach the following day, leaving the club at fifth in the table.

Since 28 November 2021, Feldhofer managed Austrian club SK Rapid Wien. Feldhofer was fired by Rapid on 16 October 2022.^[2]

On 16 June 2024, he was appointed as the manager of Georgian club Dinamo Tbilisi signing a year and a half contract.^[3] On 10 December 2024, Dinamo Tbilisi announced the departure of Feldhofer as Head Coach by mutual agreement.^[4]

On the same day, Feldhofer was announced as the new head coach of Cercle Brugge on a six months contract, with an option for 2025-26 season.^[1]

Managerial statistics

As of match played 15 October 2022

Managerial record by team and tenure
Team	Nation	From	To	Record					Ref
Team	Nation	From	To	G	W	D	L	Win %	Ref
SV Lafnitz		10 October 2015	23 December 2019	132	66	34	32	050.00	^[5]
Wolfsberger AC		23 December 2019	4 March 2021	46	20	10	16	043.48	^[6]
Rapid Wien		29 November 2021	16 October 2022	42	17	11	14	040.48	^[7]
Dinamo Tbilisi		16 June 2024	10 December 2024	25	8	6	11	032.00	^[8]
Cercle Brugge		10 December 2024	present	5	2	3	0	040.00	^[9]
Total				234	107	57	70	045.73	—