David Wagner

David Wagner (born 19 October 1971) is a professional football manager and former player who is the manager of EFL Championship club Norwich City.

Wagner grew up in West Germany.

He made his professional debut with Eintracht Frankfurt in 1990 and played as a striker for several clubs in the first and second division of German football.

In the mid-1990s, Wagner was one of several German-born players called up by United States men's national soccer team coach Steve Sampson due to their ancestry, along with Thomas Dooley and Michael Mason.

Son of an American stepfather and German mother, Wagner played for the United States national team, earning eight caps from 1996 until 1998.

Wagner made his debut in a friendly 3–1 win over El Salvador in Los Angeles on 30 August 1996, in which he was substituted at half-time for Brian McBride.

He was part of the Schalke squad that won the 1997 UEFA Cup.

In April 1997, after Canada lost to the United States in a World Cup qualifying match in which Wagner played, the Canadian Soccer Association complained to FIFA that Wagner should be ineligible to play for the United States based on his appearances for Germany's youth teams.

On 2 May 1997, FIFA announced that Wagner was eligible to play for the United States because his games with the German teams were exhibitions, not official matches.

He made five appearances the following year and two more in 1998, all but one as a starter.

However, Wagner was rarely called into the U.S. team afterwards and he was not named to the squad for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Following his playing career, Wagner became a manager, working mostly with his former 1. Mainz 05 teammate Jürgen Klopp.

From 2011 to 2015 Wagner managed Borussia Dortmund II.

Wagner was appointed as Borussia Dortmund II manager with effect from 1 July 2011.

In November 2015 took the manager's position at Huddersfield Town, whom he led to the Premier League via the 2017 EFL Championship play-off final.

He left the role on 31 October 2015, amid rumours that he was going to join Klopp's backroom staff at Liverpool.

On 5 November 2015, Wagner was appointed manager of English club Huddersfield Town following the departure of Chris Powell.

He brought Christoph Bühler, who had left Borussia Dortmund on 1 November 2015, with him as his assistant.

In the summer of 2016, Wagner brought in 13 players from across the continent, including Danny Ward, Chris Löwe, and Aaron Mooy.

He took his players on a bonding tour of Sweden, where they had to survive with only basic equipment for a few days.

The team's success in the early 2016–17 season was largely accredited to the squad's tight bond, something that Wagner claimed was a direct result of this Sweden trip.

A few weeks later, they visited Austria and kept two clean sheets in matches against Bundesliga teams Werder Bremen and Ingolstadt 04.

After an unbeaten start to the 2016–17 season, Huddersfield were top of the table at the start of September, including a win at St James' Park against Newcastle United.

Wagner was the EFL Championship Manager of the Month for August 2016 and February 2017.

On 29 May 2017, Huddersfield secured promotion to the Premier League for the 2017–18 season, following a victory on penalties in the play-off final against Reading.

On 30 June 2017, Wagner signed an improved two-year contract.

He was praised for his achievements in keeping Huddersfield in the Premier League at the end of the 2017–18 season, a feat regarded by bookmakers as improbable and described by The Guardian as "the Premier League's greatest survival story", with Wagner in particular noted as "a leader of rare charisma and intelligence."

He left Huddersfield in January 2019, and then had brief spells at Bundesliga club Schalke 04 and Swiss Super League club Young Boys.

Wagner was born in Frankfurt, West Germany.

His biological father is from Thailand, his mother is German.

Before his birth, Wagner's mother married an American.

Wagner was a journeyman striker for his playing career, playing primarily for Mainz 05, Darmstadt 98, FC Gütersloh, and Schalke 04.

He also had short stints at Waldhof Mannheim, Eintracht Frankfurt and TSG Weinheim and Germania Pfungstadt.

He enjoyed his best spell at Mainz scoring 19 times in his four years at the club.

Former teammate and lifelong friend Jürgen Klopp recalled that "he wasn't very consistent, even if he does not want to hear it... He was a big talent, but not every day. He was a very young player when he came from Eintracht Frankfurt to Mainz, a very skilled boy, very quick, a good striker."

On 14 January 2019, Wagner and Huddersfield Town agreed to terminate his contract by mutual consent, with the team in last place and eight points from safety.

On 9 May 2019, Wagner was appointed as manager of Bundesliga club Schalke 04 on a three-year contract until 30 June 2022.

In the second half of the 2019–20 season, Schalke set a new club record of 16 league games without a win between 25 January and 27 June 2020.

The winless streak continued with an 0–8 defeat against Bayern Munich in the first match of the 2020–21 season.

After a 3–1 defeat against Werder Bremen, the 18th winless league match in a row, Wagner was sacked on 27 September 2020.