Manuel Baum - TUM Community

Since December 2016 Manuel Baum is very successfully coaching FC Augsburg's professional team. At TUM he has earned a diploma in Sports Sciences and Teaching for Realschule (Image: Astrid Eckert/TUM).

Alumni athletes

First Division Football Coach Manuel Baum

“My Life Is All about My Family and Football”

26. Sep 2018

Reading time Min.

Originally Manuel Baum is a teacher for physical education. But since December 2016 he is doing what many dream of: as the head coach of a first division football team he is bringing in success every weekend.

Football has always played an important role in Manuel Baum’s life. His professional career started in Dingolfing in Lower Bavaria as a goalkeeper, at the age of 15 he joined TSV 1860. He lived in Munich alone, staying with a host family and additionally attended high school at the same time. At the age of 18 he already received the first offer to work as a special coach for goalkeeping. Back then nobody had any idea that he would later make a huge career as a first division coach.

Love for football

After finishing school his thirst for knowledge led him to TUM: “For me, the question of why has always been an important one during training. I mean not just consuming contents but to understand why I had to do a run or power training.”

He completed a double degree in Sports Science with an emphasis on Economics and Management & Sports on one side, and on the other Sports & Economics for teaching at Realschule. Here Manuel Baum also met his later wife. In addition to studying he continued to play – back then in the fourth-highest league in Bavaria – and furthermore coached the trainees at 1860 München. “That was a pretty tight schedule“, Manuel Baum says today.

I am happy to share a little of what i was able to experience.

Manuel Baum
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Having completed his studies and the subsequent in-service teaching training Manuel Baum took up employment at a Realschule in Taufkirchen. Not any kind of Realschule but an elite school of the German Football Federation (DFB), in which pupils regularly attend their club’s trainings and are being taught in theory of training, sports biology and kinetics. “These pupils need to be addressed in a particular way”, Manuel Baum knows. “You need to communicate to them that, despite their dream of becoming pro football players, they need a proper education, as well.”

Next to his teaching job Manuel Baum continued to coach the third-league team in Unterhaching, and later became the head coach of the youth training centre in Augsburg. In December 2016 he received the crucial call. Since then Manuel Baum is very successfully coaching the FC Augsburg’s professional team. Initially the top candidate for relegation at the beginning of this season, the team delivered the best start of the season the club has ever had.

Permanent post as a civil servant or coaching position

Currently Manuel Baum is on leave from his teaching position in order to pursue his coaching job. But in the long term that is not a solution. “The most difficult impending decision is going to be whether I should give up my lifetime position as a civil servant in oder to coach full-time. That is really difficult, especially if you have a family”, says Manuel Baum, who has two small kids with his wife. Despite his many commitments, he frequently takes the time to let others benefit from his experience: “I try to give back a little of what I was able to experience, for example to provide insights into the professional world in a small presentation. But right now my life is all about my family and football.”

Manuel Baum

Diploma Sports Sciences 2005, Staatsexamen (state examination) 2006

Manuel Baum started his football career as a goalkeeper in Dingolfing in Lower Bavaria and joined TSV 1860 München when he was 15 years old. He had further stopovers at the FC Ismaning and FC Unterföhring.

Because his father was a teacher, Manuel Baum opted for a double degree at TUM: a diploma in Sports Sciences with an emphasis on Economics & Management on one hand and Sports & Economics for teaching at Realschule on the other.

He started his career as a coach at 1860 München, then moved on to third-league club SpVgg Unterhaching. Eventually he became head coach at FC Augsburg’s youth training centre. In December 2016 he took over FC Augsburg’s professional team, with which he is very successful now.

Manuel Baum is married with two kids. He met his wife while studying at TUM.

Manuel Baum in an interview: read the entire conversation in the issue 1/2018 of the Alumni magazine>

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