Just an assistant coach, now German wrecks PL giant's title dream
Just an assistant coach, now German wrecks PL giant's title dream It is a remarkable story that reached what is, for now, its sensational peak in the FA Cup yesterday. German coach Tonda Eckert knocked heavy favorites Arsenal out of the competition with his Championship side Southampton FC. The 33-year-old manager only took over the team, which had been relegated from the Premier League, in November 2025.
After a successful spell following his promotion from assistant to interim coach (four wins in five games), he was eventually appointed head coach and guided the team out of the relegation zone. It is his first job as a head coach. Before that, he had worked exclusively as the right-hand man to head coaches — for example under former St.
Pauli coach Alexander Blessin at Genoa in Italy, or under Miroslav Klose with Bayern Munich’s U17 side. And even though all of that was not so long ago, his career has now reached a very different level. Just a few months after his promotion to head coach, the North Rhine-Westphalia native knocked Arsenal out of the cup yesterday with Southampton FC, currently seventh in England’s second division.
📸 Mike Hewitt - 2026 Getty Images Ross Stewart scored the opener in the first half, and Shea Charles responded five minutes before the end of regular time after the Premier League leaders had equalized in the meantime. His team did not dominate the game against the overwhelming favorites, of course, but they were far more clinical going forward. Several players familiar from the Bundesliga also played a major role in the win.
Bayern loanee Daniel Peretz produced some fine saves, while former Heidenheim player Leo Scienza and Caspar Jander, whom we still know from Nuremberg, both delivered outstanding performances and helped secure the biggest achievement of Tonda Eckert’s coaching career so far. For the Gunners, who have been waiting many years for a title and who this season seemed to be the benchmark in European football both in the league and in the Champions League, this quarter-final cup exit is likely to have caused plenty of nerves. Next week, they face Sporting Lisbon away in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.