Leverkusen appoint Korkut until end of season

Berlin (AFP) – Bayer Leverkusen on Monday named former Hannover and Kaiserslautern coach Tayfun Korkut as manager until the end of the season after the weekend sacking of Roger Schmidt.

Former Turkish international Korkut, 42, has been tasked with steadying the ship at Leverkusen following a wretched recent run which culminated in Saturday’s 6-2 Bundesliga thrashing at Borussia Dortmund and saw Schmidt fired the next day.

He was the ninth coach to be dismissed by a Bundesliga club this season.

Defeat left Leverkusen mired in mid-table but they are still in the Champions League, albeit 4-2 down to Atletico Madrid with the last-16 second leg on March 15.

“With him we want to overcome the difficult current phase we are going through and finish the season well,” managing director Michael Schade said in a statement of Korkut’s appointment.