Former Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand was hired Monday to lead Bayer Leverkusen as a replacement for Erik ten Hag following the Dutchman's abrupt firing last week.
Hjulmand has been out of work since leaving the Danish national team following its last-16 exit at the European Championship in 2024, after four years in charge.
It will be Hjulmand's second stint in the Bundesliga, after less than a year with Mainz in the 2014-15 season.
“I have always seen Bayer 04 as a very well-managed, well-structured and highly ambitious club," the 53-year-old Hjulmand said. “This impression has been confirmed in recent days. It’s an honor to be entrusted with a team like this.”
Leverkusen, which won the Bundesliga in the 2023-24 season after going the entire domestic campaign undefeated, needed a new coach after getting rid of Ten Hag, who had just three games in charge after succeeding Xabi Alonso.
Hjulmand has signed a contract through the end of the 2026-27 season and faces a tricky debut at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday before a return to Denmark to face Copenhagen in the Champions League on Sept. 18.
He hasn't coached in the Champions League since the 2012-13 season with Nordsjaelland, where he'd won the Danish title. Nordsjaelland had one draw and five losses in that campaign and was defeated in Champions League qualification the following season.
The former Manchester United manager was tasked with rebuilding Leverkusen after an exodus of key players, including Florian Wirtz, Granit Xhaka and Jeremie Frimpong, since Alonso’s departure for Real Madrid at the end of last season.
However, chaos soon engulfed the club, with Ten Hag questioning club decisions in the transfer market and collecting just one point from Leverkusen's first two Bundesliga games — a home defeat to Hoffenheim before squandering a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 with 10-man Werder Bremen.
That draw saw players ignore Ten Hag's instructions and argue among themselves on the field over who would take a penalty.
Leverkusen chief executive Fernando Carro commended Hjulmand's “transparent, communicative and empathetic style,” saying: “A newly assembled team like ours, which is capable of development, needs clear guidelines.”
Hjulmand comes recommended by a key member of Alonso's staff. Fitness coach Ismael Camenforte worked for Hjulmand with Denmark and at Leverkusen until leaving for Madrid with Alonso.
Hjulmand's empathy and leadership qualities were especially on show at the European Championship in 2021, when Denmark captain Christian Eriksen collapsed on the field after suffering cardiac arrest during the team's first game against Finland.
Hjulmand was widely lauded for the way he dealt with the emotional aftermath of Eriksen's collapse and subsequent recovery and led the Danes to the semifinals, where they lost to England.
AP Sports Writer James Ellingworth in Duesseldorf, Germany, contributed to this report.
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FILE - Denmark's then head coach Kasper Hjulmand applauds supporters ahead of a a round of sixteen match between Germany and Denmark at the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in Dortmund, Germany, Saturday, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru, File)
FAIRFAX, Virginia (AP) — Kilmar Abrego Garcia wasn't an activist and he didn't choose to become locked in to what has become one of the most contentious immigration issues of the Trump administration, his lawyer told The Associated Press on Monday.
But as he experiences some of the few days he's had with his family since being sent erroneously to an El Salvador prison in March, his lawyer said he's still hoping for a just resolution to his case.
“He’s been through a lot, and he’s still fighting,” said his lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg during an interview with AP following Abrego Garcia's court-ordered release from detention last week. “What it is he can fight for is circumscribed by the law and by the great power of the United States government, but he’s still fighting.”
Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation to El Salvador helped galvanize opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. He was held in a notoriously brutal prison there despite having no criminal record.
U.S. officials claimed Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member, an allegation he denies and which he wasn’t charged for. He was later charged with human smuggling, accusations his lawyers have called preposterous and vindictive.
The Trump administration fought efforts to return him to the U.S. but eventually complied. Since then, his case has been a twisted turn of legal filings and wranglings that has seen Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, released from detention once since March — and that time just for a weekend — while the government has pursued smuggling charges against him and announced plans to deport him to a series of African countries.
Then last week, a federal district court judge in Maryland ordered him to be released and barred the government for now from detaining him again until a hearing can be held in his case, possibly as early as this week, said Sandoval-Moshenberg.
The Department of Homeland Security criticized the judge’s decision to release him last week and vowed to appeal, calling the ruling “naked judicial activism” by a judge appointed during the Obama administration. On Monday, Homeland Security declined to comment for this story, citing restrictions on public comments put in place by a judge in Tennessee.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia has a number of paths forward. He said he thought that his client had a strong case for asylum. His original asylum claim in 2019 was rejected because he applied after the one-year deadline. But Sandoval-Moshenberg argued the government essentially reset the clock by removing him to El Salvador and then bringing him back.
And after the alleged abuse Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia suffered in El Salvador this year, he thought he would have a “rock solid” asylum case. But, citing the twists and turns of his case and how he's become a symbol for the administration's pursuit of immigrants, he's concerned about his chances of getting a fair trial in immigration court.
“I think they’ve already shown that they’re willing to stack the deck," said Sandoval-Moshenberg.
Abrego Garcia could also apply for a green card since he's married to an American citizen. But that would require getting a waiver from the government, said Sandoval-Moshenberg, and the lawyer is doubtful one would be granted.
Or he could continue to seek removal to Costa Rica, said Sandoval-Moshenberg, a country that has offered to allow him to enter as a refugee and live and work legally. And he wouldn't be returned to El Salvador, the attorney said.
But he also believes the government would continue to fight that option.
“They’re focused on beating him. They’re focused on punishing him. They’re focusing on making him miserable. I guess Costa Rica isn’t miserable enough,” he said.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said he spent some time with Abrego Garcia and his family over the weekend talking through the government's next steps and what Abrego Garcia might want for his future.
“There’s so many different ways it could go. And so much of it depends on just how dirty the government’s willing to play,” he said.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said that he thought that if the government was willing to remove him to Costa Rica, his client would accept it although he stressed that the decision was up to him.
He said that Abrego Garcia and his legal team wouldn't consider that justice — that to him would mean staying with his family in the U.S. But Sandoval-Moshenberg said that given everything he's faced and the “fact that they’re apparently willing to use infinite prosecutorial resources against him, deportation to Costa Rica is an acceptable outcome for him.”
Sandoval-Moshenberg also stressed that there is one place that Abrego Garcia does not want to go.
“His number one priority is not to end up back in CECOT,” said Sandoval-Moshenberg, referring to the prison in El Salvador where his client was held. Sandoval-Moshenberg said Abrego Garcia had been tortured there, claims authorities in El Salvador have denied and that the AP could not independently verify.
“His number one priority is avoiding getting sent back to that prison.”
Sandoval-Moshenberg said he has no idea why the government seems to have chosen Abrego Garcia’s case to fight tooth and nail.
“This isn’t a case where he’s an activist, like an immigrants rights activist, or he’s been, you know, persecuted by the government for his pro-Palestinian speech or something like that,” the attorney said. “He’s a random guy.”
The whole process of deportation, imprisonment and return has "just been this really sort of bizarre, out of world experience for him,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said.
The judge temporarily barred the Trump administration from detaining Abrego Garcia last Friday until the next court hearing.
While no date has been set for that, it could happen as early as later this week, Sandoval-Moshenberg said, noting the whiplash of the case has been a struggle for Abrego Garcia and his family.
“The ground underneath his feet, it’s just earthquake after earthquake,” he said.
Loller reported from Nashville, Tennessee.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia waits to enter the building for a mandatory check at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, after he was released from detention on Thursday under a judge's order. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's legal team who specializes in federal immigration cases, poses for a portrait in Fairfax, Va., Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's legal team who specializes in federal immigration cases, is interviewed in Fairfax, Va., Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's legal team who specializes in federal immigration cases, is interviewed in Fairfax, Va., Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's legal team who specializes in federal immigration cases, is interviewed in Fairfax, Va., Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
