Immediately after taking office, he was considered a shaky candidate, but ten years later Bennet Wiegert has become an integral part of the Champions League winners SC Magdeburg. He has long since achieved legendary status. This Monday, he celebrates his tenth anniversary with the Bundesliga handball club. Not everything went smoothly in his first season in 2015/2016, but SCM surprised everyone by winning the cup in 2016. The surprise coup also saved young coach Wiegert.
It is no surprise that the now 43-year-old considers this cup win to be his "most important title". In the years that followed, the Magdeburg native tweaked the squad and also acted as sporting director. He completely changed Magdeburg's game: fast-paced play, one-on-one breakthroughs and shots from close range. This is also how the successes come. Magdeburg regularly plays internationally and won the European League in 2021.
Gradually to the top
Managing Director Marc-Hendrik Schmedt uses the successes to put SCM on a firm footing, finding a basis with many small sponsors to avoid dependencies. Title bonuses are regularly invested in the team, thus increasing the individual quality - and SCM can also react quickly to injuries with additional signings. Sports director and head coach Wiegert always plans for the long term, usually knowing two or three years in advance what his squad will look like.
Wiegert is considered a meticulous worker who prepares his team for opponents to the point of obsession, constantly developing new approaches. He has never experienced a coach "who is so passionate about his sport", says backcourt player Felix Claar about his coach. Magdeburg's style of play with many one-on-one duels and almost no backcourt shooters was initially ridiculed, but is now regarded as exemplary.
Magdeburg's hunger for titles
The meticulousness is paying off: Since winning the European League, Magdeburg have lifted the IHF World Cup three times, two German championships, were cup winners in 2024 and won the Champions League in 2023 and 2025. Wiegert is one of only five players (with SCM in 2002) and coaches to have won the European premier league.
The successful Magdeburg coach is often associated with the German national team. Whether working with a national team would keep Wiegert busy as a club coach will probably remain unanswered, as the job as national team coach is "so far away for me that I don't even think about it", family man Wiegert once explained. Instead, he wants to accompany the development at SCM "in the long term".
Still a chance to win three titles
Magdeburg still has three chances to win titles this season, leads the Bundesliga with a commanding lead, is first in the preliminary group of the premier class and is in the last 16 of the cup. Their only defeat of the season so far came in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup against defending champions Veszprém. Magdeburg has once again become a top address in Europe under Wiegert. "We are the ones to beat, the best club in the world," said crowd favorite Gisli Kristjansson on the occasion of his contract extension in November.
Bennet Wiegert, who ran through the legendary Hermann-Gieseler-Halle as the son of Olympic champion Ingolf as a toddler, has long since achieved legendary status in Magdeburg. His jersey with the number 3 hangs in the Hall of Fame under the roof of the hall. His father Ingolf, himself a champion, cup and European Cup winner with the SCM, likes to summarize it like this: "It used to be said that this is Ingolf Wiegert's son - and today it's said that this is Bennet Wiegert's father." Wiegert is not yet the longest-serving SCM coach. The legendary Klaus Miesner coached the Magdeburg handball team for over 20 years until his death in January 1989.
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