Daniel Farke, a self-described slow striker, keeps conquering England's second tier
As a player Daniel Farke joked that he could find the net yet was perhaps the slowest forward anywhere in Western Europe, and he never left German football's lower leagues. As a manager he has won England's Championship three times, twice with Norwich City and once with Leeds United.
Born on 30 October 1976, Farke spent most of his playing days at SV Lippstadt, where he later began coaching and lifted the club from Germany's sixth tier to the fourth over six years. He had planned a sabbatical but instead took charge of Borussia Dortmund's reserve team for two seasons, then joined Norwich City on 25 May 2017.
After a 14th-place first season, Norwich won the Championship in 2018-19. They went straight back down in 2020, then bounced up again in 2020-21 with a club record 97 points, earning him Manager of the Season. The Premier League was harsher: in September 2021 he lost his 15th consecutive top-flight game with Norwich, a record in English top-flight history, and on 6 November he was sacked on the very day his side recorded their first league win of the season.
A job at the Russian club Krasnodar in January 2022 ended two months later without his taking charge of a single match. A season at Borussia Mönchengladbach followed, opening with a 9-1 cup win and ending with 10th place and dismissal. Leeds United hired him on 4 July 2023; they collected 90 points but lost the play-off final to Southampton, then took the title the following season with 100 points, sealed on goal difference by a final-day win at Plymouth.
Back in the top flight, talk of his sacking swirled by November 2025 until a 3-1 home win over Chelsea turned the season around. On 13 April 2026 Leeds won a league game at Old Trafford for the first time in 45 years, and they reached an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley before finishing 14th. He switched from a possession-based 4-3-3 to a more direct 3-5-2 and leaned heavily on set pieces, and in the 2026 summer he paid a club record £40 million for goalkeeper James Trafford.
Source: Daniel Farke
