VfB Stuttgart’s Sebastian Hoeneß eager to bring the fight to Bayern Munich in DFB-Pokal final
Hoeneß will face his former club.
Stuttgart's German head coach Sebastian Hoeness addresses a press conference on the eve of the German Cup (DFB Pokal) final football match FC Bayern Munich v VfB Stuttgart in Berlin, on May 22, 2026. (Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP via Getty Images) / DFB REGULATIONS PROHIBIT ANY USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS AS IMAGE SEQUENCES AND QUASI-VIDEO. | AFP via Getty Images In the 2019/20 season, Sebastian Hoeneß led Bayern Munich’s U-23s to claim an unprecedented victory in the third division of German football.
Couple this victory with the treble victory in the same year and there were serious concerns that this could kick start an era of Bavarian dominance in Germany even more total than the current one of seven Bundesliga titles and four DFB-Pokal trophies in seven years, as even the Bavarian’s U-23s would dominate in the lower divisions. This never materialized as Hoeneß left, the U-23s went down the season after his exit and the Bavarians stopped winning the DFB-Pokal. They even lost their Bundesliga title winning streak in 2024 amid a period of total chaos for the club.
Vincent Kompany, however, has resurrected that feeling of inevitable Bayern dominance by winning the last two Bundesliga trophies (the U-23s are still terrible, unfortunately, but that’s not currently the point). Now only one game stands between his team and winning the domestic double as Kompany faces off against Hoeneß and his current side, VfB Stuttgart. Hoeneß knows how difficult the task facing his side is and acknowledged as much in the press conference ahead of the DFB-Pokal final.
“We’ll need an exceptional performance. That’s what we’re aiming for; we need what you always need against Bayern,” Hoeneß readily admitted (as captured by @iMiaSanMia ). “We’ve got a taste for it – that’s what [captain Atakan Karazor] said a year ago, and you could feel it again when we reached the final quite comfortably.