Oliver Glasner

Oliver Glasner (born 28 August 1974) is an Austrian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Premier League club Crystal Palace.

Glasner started his career at SV Riedau, and joined the second Austrian division team SV Ried in 1993.

Ried got promoted to the Austrian Bundesliga in 1995.

During the 1997–98 season he won the Austrian Cup with the club.

A defender by trade, he spent almost all of his professional career with Austrian Bundesliga club SV Ried, winning the Austrian Cup in 1998 and 2011.

It was club's first European campaign since 2000.

When Ried went down to second division again in 2003, Glasner joined First League team LASK for the next season, but returned to Ried a year later.

Ried returned to the Bundesliga in 2005, and in the 2010–11 season, Glasner won the Austrian Cup for the second time.

In 2006, Glasner completed Diplomkaufmann at University of Hagen.

On 31 July 2011, he suffered a cut above the eye and a slight concussion during a header duel in a league match between Ried and Rapid Wien.

Nevertheless, he accompanied his team during the Europa League third qualifying round second leg against Brøndby.

After the final head ball training session, a brain haemorrhage developed on August 4, 2011.

He was operated on the same day.

Glasner survived the operation, but ended his career on the advice of the doctors on August 23, 2011.

He made more than 500 league appearances in his 16-year career.

He was offered an assistant coach role at Ried in 2012.

But Peter Vogl, then honorary president of SV Ried and CEO of Red Bull Salzburg, hired Glasner as management assistant, responsible for sports.

Glasner asked Ralf Rangnick for an opportunity in coaching, and in July 2012, he became assistant coach for Roger Schmidt in the first-team squad.

Following his retirement, Glasner worked as an assistant coach at Red Bull Salzburg before returning to Ried as head coach in 2014.

He then spent four seasons as head coach of former club LASK, winning promotion to the Austrian top flight, and helping the club finish as runners-up in his final season.

After the successful two-year spell at Salzburg, finishing Austrian champions, Glasner did not follow Schmid towards Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga, but instead was appointed head coach at his former club Ried for the 2014–15 season.

He started the campaign with two wins: 3–2 against Parndorf in the first round of the Austrian Cup, on 11 July 2014; and 3–1 against Wiener Neustädter in a league match, on 19 July.

Glasner joined LASK in the 2015–16 season as a director of sport, as well as head coach.

Over time, vice president Jürgen Werner and Glasner constructed a team with an unmistakable style of play.

LASK earned promotion to the first division in Glasners second season, then finished the 2017–18 Austrian Football Bundesliga season in fourth position, earning a place in the 2018–19 Europa League third qualifying round.

In the 2018–19 season, LASK finished in second place, just behind perennial champions Red Bull Salzburg, which allowed them to participate in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

Following his success with LASK, Jörg Schmadtke hired Glasner to manage VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, and Valérien Ismaël joined LASK as his replacement.

In his first season with Wolfsburg, the club managed to qualify for the Europa League, finishing seventh in the league.

Glasner also guided them to the Europa League round of 16 phase, where they lost 5–1 on aggregate against Shakhtar Donetsk.

In 2019, he was appointed head coach of Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg, qualifying for Europe in both seasons at the club.

He was then appointed head coach of Eintracht Frankfurt, and won the UEFA Europa League in his first season, as well as leading the club to the Champions League knockout stages and DFB-Pokal final in his second and final season.

In 2024, he was named manager of Crystal Palace.

In the 2020–21 Bundesliga, Wolfsburg finished fourth, qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.

Mark van Bommel joined to succeed Glasner.

In May 2021, Eintracht Frankfurt announced that Glasner had signed as head coach on a three-year deal until 30 June 2024.

The start at Frankfurt was challenging.

Frankfurt appointed Axel Hellmann as the new chairman of the board, Markus Krösche succeeded Fredi Bobic as managing director for sport, Ben Manga replaced Bruno Hübner as sporting director and the team lost its top scorer, André Silva, to RB Leipzig.

The team lost 2–0 in the first round of DFB-Pokal against third tier Waldhof Mannheim.

Frankfurt was close to the relegation zone in November, managing to win only one league game during the first months – against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.

It was the first time after 21 years, and after 16 matches they did so.