{"id":103684,"date":"2025-09-27T14:29:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T14:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/?p=103684"},"modified":"2025-09-27T14:36:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T14:36:30","slug":"former-union-berlin-cult-captain-sebastian-bonig-prepares-to-coach-bundesliga-fixture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/2025\/former-union-berlin-cult-captain-sebastian-bonig-prepares-to-coach-bundesliga-fixture\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Union Berlin ‘cult captain’ Sebastian B\u00f6nig prepares to coach Bundesliga match"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With head coach Steffen Baumgart suspended<\/a>, former 1. FC Union Berlin player Sebastian B\u00f6nig will take the reins for the club he once represented in the German lower divisions this coming Sunday. The now 44-year-old captained Union way back when (before the founding of the 3. Liga even), they were only supported by a small group of East Berlin diehards. B\u00f6nig never got a chance to represent Union in the 2. Bundesliga.<\/p>\n

Baumgart’s ejection from last weekend’s league victory over Eintracht Frankfurt will leave him unable to coach against his former club Hamburger SV this weekend.<\/a> It was perhaps the desire to minimize any potential further distractions that B\u00f6nig was permitted to appear as the face-of-the-team at the Friday pre-match press conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of yet, there’s no word on what Baumgart will be doing on Sunday. It might be the case that (as was once done in Baumgart’s K\u00f6ln days) that the club will engage in a publicity stunt filming Baumgart from home. It could also be the case that – like the last time Baumgart was suspended with Union<\/a> – the 53-year-old will be keeping a low profile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In any event, B\u00f6nig appeared totally up to the task. Both B\u00f6nig and Baumgart are actually former Union players, though their time didn’t overlap. B\u00f6nig joined die Eisernen\u00a0<\/em>in the summer of 2004, just after Baumgart departed the relegated 2. Bundesliga outfit. B\u00f6nig captained and remained with Union during dark years in the third and fourth tiers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was only when Union finally found their way back to the 2. Bundesliga ahead of the 2009\/10 season that B\u00f6nig was deemed to no longer have a role with the club and his contract not renewed. After taking a little break from football, B\u00f6nig finished off his career playing semi-pro ball with Tempelhof’s Viktoria Berlin. B\u00f6nig has been working with Union in one administrative\/coaching capacity or another since 2014.<\/p>\n

Among those who supported FCU during their own semi-pro days B\u00f6nig will always maintain cult status. B\u00f6nig – who once led the cheers before the Kurve at the Stadion An der Alten F\u00f6rsterei – beamed with excitement at the press conference.<\/p>\n

“I’m really happy to be here,<\/em>” B\u00f6nig said on Friday. “I’m here after the coaching team sat together and we had several collective discussions. Obviously, it was head coach Steffen Buamgart’s decision [that I coach the team]. I’m looking forward to the task. It’s my first time in this role.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Good question,”\u00a0<\/em>B\u00f6nig would later answer in response to a question as to how excited he was. “I’m excited about every game equally, but this is the first time that I’m standing front-and-center.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Of course, the match-day discussions are still led by Steffen,<\/em>” B\u00f6nig continued. “He’ll be with the team until 30 minutes before kickoff and will be there again 30 minutes after full time.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

“Every Union game is still something special for me,<\/em>” B\u00f6nig concluded. “There’s nothing better than Union.<\/em>“<\/p>\n

GGFN<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Peter Weis<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Temporary 1. FC Union Berlin trainer Sebastian B\u00f6nig had the pleasure of conducting his club’s Bundesliga pre-match press conference yesterday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12312420,"featured_media":103685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[387,15,11],"tags":[773,450,937,449,462,1028,3506,3505,3355,2898,1918],"class_list":["post-103684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1-fc-union-berlin","category-2-bundesliga","category-bundesliga","tag-1-fc-union-berlin","tag-2-bundesliga","tag-3-liga-2","tag-bundesliga","tag-hamburger-sv","tag-news","tag-nofv-oberliga-nord","tag-regionalliga","tag-regionalliga-nord","tag-sebastian-bonig","tag-steffen-baumgart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12312420"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103684"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103690,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103684\/revisions\/103690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getfootballnewsgermany.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}