BERLIN (AP) — Union Berlin is bringing former club favorite Steffen Baumgart back as coach to take over from the fired Bo Svensson after its lackluster start to the Bundesliga season.
The Köpenick-based club said Monday that Baumgart, a former forward who scored 22 goals in two seasons at Union, will take charge of his first training session on Thursday, with a friendly game scheduled against Bundesliga rival Holstein Kiel on Sunday.
It’s the 52-year-old Baumgart’s fourth coaching job after stints in charge of Paderborn, Cologne, and second-division club Hamburger SV, where he was fired in November after the club lost hope he could lead the team to promotion.
“We decided for Steffen Baumgart because we’re convinced that he’s the right type of coach for us,” Union’s sporting director Horst Heldt said. “His way of leading a team, developing and challenging players, was an important aspect of our decision. He also has Bundesliga experience and knows Union very well.”
Heldt also knows Baumgart well after hiring him as Cologne's coach while he was sporting director there.
Baumgart’s appointment is likely to be a popular one in Köpenick. Baumgart, a former forward, was voted Union’s player of the year for both seasons he spent at the club after joining in 2002.
Svennson was fired on Friday after nine games without a win in all competitions.
Union next plays at Heidenheim after the winter break on Jan. 11, before hosting Augsburg. Both opponents are behind 12th-place Union in the standings.
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FILE - Then-Cologne's head coach Steffen Baumgart reacts during the German Bundesliga soccer match between 1.FC Cologne and Borussia Moenchengladbach in Cologne, Germany, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court Justice on Thursday ordered the transfer of former President Jair Bolsonaro from the federal police headquarters in Brasilia to a much bigger cell with an outside area in the Papuda Penitentiary Complex, also in the capital.
The transfer was described as a move to a facility with “more favorable conditions” for high-profile detainees.
Since November, Bolsonaro has been carrying out a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup despite his 2022 electoral defeat. His lawyers have been pushing for a transfer to house arrest on medical grounds.
Michelle Bolsonaro, his wife, and his sons have regularly said that Bolsonaro is being mistreated and not getting adequate medical attention.
In the court decision, Justice Alexandre de Moraes denied the accusations. “Regrettably and falsely, there has been a systematic attempt to delegitimize the regular and lawful execution of the custodial sentence of Jair Messias Bolsonaro, which has been carried out with full respect for human dignity."
Bolsonaro had been in a 12-square-meter room with a bed, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a TV set and a desk, and Moraes ordered Bolsonaro's transfer to an even more comfortable situation. He determined that Bolsonaro be transferred to a 54-square-meter room with a 10-square-meter outside area that he can access at will.
Following the transfer, Bolsonaro will also have increased time for family visits and physiotherapy equipment such as a treadmill and bicycle will be installed. The new area resembles an apartment, with a double bed, a kitchen, a laundry, a living room and an outdoor area.
The Supreme Court’s press office said the transfer had already happened.
Since starting his sentence, Bolsonaro has made several trips to a nearby hospital, most recently after falling out of bed and hitting his head.
Moraes decided that Bolsonaro can have “full assistance, 24 (twenty-four) hours a day, from previously registered private doctors, without the need for prior notification.”
Moraes also ordered a medical examination to assess Bolsonaro's health and determine whether he needs to be transferred to a penitentiary hospital.
Bolsonaro has been hospitalized multiple times since being stabbed at a campaign event before the 2018 presidential election.
The former president and several of his allies were convicted by a panel of Supreme Court justices for attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democracy following his 2022 election defeat.
The plot included plans to kill President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Justice de Moraes. The plan also involved encouraging an insurrection in early 2023.
The former president was also found guilty of charges including leading an armed criminal organization and attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.
Bolsonaro has always denied wrongdoing.
In Thursday’s court order, Moraes said that Bolsonaro was convicted of extremely serious crimes and that his custodial sentence was not a “hotel stay or a vacation colony” as statements from Bolsonaro’s sons’ cited in the decision “mistakenly seem to demand.”
FILE - Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro stands at the entrance of his home while he is under house arrest in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis Nova, File)
