Sandro Schwarz

Sandro Schwarz (German pronunciation: born 17 October 1978) is a German football manager and a former player who is the manager of Russian club FC Dynamo Moscow.

Coaching career

On 14 October 2020, he was hired as manager by the Russian Premier League club FC Dynamo Moscow. Schwarz was invited to Dynamo by their director of sports Željko Buvač. Buvač worked as an assistant manager to Jürgen Klopp at Mainz 05 for 3 seasons when Schwarz played for the club. Schwarz formally lost his first match as head coach to CSKA Moscow, but he did not personally arrive in Moscow by the time of that game due to paperwork delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia, and the game was managed by Alyaksandr Kulchy in his stead. After actually arriving to Russia, he started his time with Dynamo with three consecutive victories, including a 5–1 derby victory over FC Lokomotiv Moscow. In the next 5 games, Dynamo won only once and lost 3 times before the season was paused for the winter break.

In April 2021, reports appeared in the German media about the possible invitation of Schwarz to Eintracht Frankfurt instead of the outgoing Adi Hütter. In response, Schwarz said that he was completely focused on Dynamo, and the spread of rumors in the sports media is an “integral part of football”.

Dynamo finished Schwarz's first season in charge in 7th place, failing to qualify for UEFA competitions, despite gaining 50 points (most since the 2014–15 season).

In the 2021–22 season, Dynamo won 4 out of their first 5 games and took the top spot in the standings. He was chosen as league's coach of the month for the games played in July and August, and once again for September.[9] When the regular Russian season's 2.5-months winter break started in December 2021, Dynamo was in second place, two points behind the league-leading Zenit. That was the highest position Dynamo took into the winter break since RPL switched to fall-to-spring schedule in the 2011–12 season. 36 points that Dynamo gained in 18 games played up to that point was the highest for the club since the 1996 season. On 15 December 2021, he extended his contract with Dynamo until the end of the 2023–24 season. He was chosen as league's coach of the month again for November-December 2021.