Leverkusen extend Bosz deal until 2022

Berlin (AFP) – Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen announced Friday they have extended the contract of head coach Peter Bosz until June 2022, even though the Dutchman produced mixed results in 2019.

Bosz, 56, took over in January 2019 and guided them to a fourth-place finish. This season, they sit seventh, nine points behind leaders RB Leipzig, before Sunday’s away match at bottom side Paderborn as the league resumes this weekend after the winter break.

Under Bosz, Leverkusen managed back-to-back league wins over Bayern Munich and Schalke last autumn.

However, poor performances meant they failed to reach the knock-out stages of the Champions League after finishing third in their group and lost three of their final four games of 2019.

“We greatly appreciate Peter Bosz’s daily work for Bayer,” said club chairman Fernando Carro in a statement.

“We have ambitious goals, which we are convinced we can achieve together with Peter Bosz at the head of the coaching team.”

Sports director Rudi Voeller says Bosz’s work is “recognisable in every training session and in every game. He has the important ability to continuously develop a team.”

Bosz coached Ajax to the 2017 Europa League final in Stockholm, where they lost 2-0 to Manchester United, but he then lasted just a few months at Borussia Dortmund, who fired him in December 2017 after a series of poor results.