VfL Wolfsburg will begin their 29th consecutive season in the Bundesliga with Paul Simonis at the helm. The 40-year-old Dutchman hails from Leidschendam-Voorburg, a municipality in South Holland with a population of around 78,000. A trained physiotherapist, Simonis celebrates his birthday on Valentine’s Day and in 2024/25 – his first full season as a first-team head coach – he remarkably led Go Ahead Eagles to victory in the Dutch Cup. Read on for more facts and figures on the Wolves’ new boss.
- Simonis follows in the footsteps of three other Dutch coaches who have taken charge of the Wolves, namely Mark van Bommel and Andries Jonker as well as Henk van Meteren, who held the reins at Elsterweg between December 1978 and April 1979.
- VfL have had plenty more assistant coaches from the Netherlands down the years, with Vincent Heilmann, Kevin Hofland, Jan van Loon, Ton Lokhoff, Robert Roelofsen and Jonker all spending time with the Green-and-Whites in the Bundesliga.
- After Steve McClaren and Oliver Glasner, Simonis is VfL’s third Bundesliga coach never to have played or coached in Germany’s top flight before his appointment.
- Simonis is the second-youngest coach to take charge of VfL in the Bundesliga, behind Florian Kohfeldt (39) and just ahead of Wolfgang Wolf (40).
- He was the youngest-ever coach of Go Ahead Eagles, who he led into the Europa League last season after victory in the KNBV Cup.
- Simonis guided the Deventer-based club to seventh place in the Eredivisie last season – their best finish since the 1968/69 campaign, when they were known simply as Go Ahead.
- The 40-year-old was nominated for the Rinus Michels Award – the Netherlands’ coach of the year award – following his achievements with Go Ahead Eagles last season. The winner will be announced on 2 July.
