The former national team coach will return to club management for the first time in nearly a decade, with his appointment as head coach of Bundesliga football club, Bayer Leverkusen.
Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano reported Monday that the 53-year-old has agreed terms to replace Erik ten Hag, with the contract already sealed. Hjulmand is expected to lead his first training session within 48 hours and be on the touchline for Friday’s Bundesliga game against Eintracht Frankfurt.
The move comes after a turbulent summer of change on the Leverkusen bench. Xabi Alonso, who led the club to an unprecedented Bundesliga and German Cup double in the 2023-24 season, announced shortly before the end of last season that he would leave to take charge at Real Madrid.
Former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag replaced Alonso in May 2025, but lasted only two league games before being dismissed by management on September 1.
This will be Hjulmand’s first club role since 2019, when he stepped down at FC Nordsjælland to take charge of Denmark’s national team in 2020. He guided Denmark to the semifinals of the European Championship in 2021, helped the team qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2024, before stepping down from the post last summer.
Hjulmand previously led Nordsjælland to its first-ever Danish Superliga title in 2012 and had a brief stint coaching Mainz in the German Bundesliga.
Bayer Leverkusen’s sporting director Simon Rolfes said he is excited by Hjulmand’s appointment.
“We are delighted to have signed a contract with Kasper Hjulmand, whose work we have followed closely over a long period of time,” Rolfes wrote in German on the team’s website. “Kasper is the right man to develop us into a top team again.”
For Danish football fans, the move keeps one of their own in the European spotlight.