Christian Ilzer

Christian Ilzer (born 21 October 1977) is a former Austrian football player and now manager of Sturm Graz.

Christian Ilzer

Ilzer in 2018
Personal information
Full name	Christian Ilzer
Date of birth	(1977-10-21) 21 October 1977
Place of birth	Puch bei Weiz, Austria
Club information
Current team	Sturm Graz (Manager)
Youth career
1986–1998	USK Raiffeisen Puch
1998–1999	SV Ada Anger
2001–2004	USK Raiffeisen Puch
2004–2006	SC Sparkasse Weiz
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2006–2007	USK Raiffeisen Puch
Teams managed
2006–2007	USK Raiffeisen Puch (player-manager)
2007–2011	TSV Hartberg (assistant)
2012–2013	SC Weiz
2013–2014	TSV Hartberg (assistant)
2014–2015	Wiener Neustadt (assistant)
2014	Wiener Neustadt (caretaker)
2015	TSV Hartberg
2015–2017	Wolfsberger AC (assistant)
2017–2018	TSV Hartberg
2018–2019	Wolfsberger AC
2019–2020	Austria Wien
2020–2024	Sturm Graz
2024-	Hoffenheim
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

He started his career with USK Raiffeisen Puch. Soon his career was stopped by three cruciate ligament injuries. He started managing the U17 squad of Puch and in addition to his job as an electronics technician a second education as a coach. 2006 and 2007 he was player-manager of USK Raiffeisen Puch.

2007 he became assistant coach of TSV Hartberg under Bruno Friesenbichler. In September 2011 he became fitness manager of the Austrian U19 national team and 2012–13 season also was the manager of SC Weiz. After another season as asssistance coach with Hartberg he went on to SC Wiener Neustadt in the same position. After coach Heimo Pfeifenberger was fired he became caretaker of the club for one match. After the season he left Wiener Neustadt and became coach of TSV Hartberg. After the season he left and became assistance coach of Wolfsberger AC under Heimo Pfeifenberger. In the 2019-20 season he was coach of FK Austria Wien but at the end he was fired and became coach of SK Sturm Graz.

Ilzer won the ÖFB Cup with Sturm Graz in the 2022/23 season. It was Sturm's sixth ÖFB Cup title. In the 2023/24 season, Sturm even won the championship and cup double. In November 2024, Ilzer finally left Sturm after more than four years and moved to Germany to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.

Statistics as manager

As of match played 12 December 2021

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
SC Weiz		1 July 2012	8 June 2013	30	19	3	8	60	33	+27	063.33
Wiener Neustadt (caretaker)		12 November 2014	23 November 2014	1	1	0	0	2	0	+2	100.00
TSV Hartberg		5 June 2015	25 November 2015	17	12	2	3	40	24	+16	070.59
TSV Hartberg		1 July 2017	1 June 2018	40	22	9	9	76	41	+35	055.00
Wolfsberger AC		1 June 2018	29 May 2019	35	14	10	11	53	51	+2	040.00
Austria Wien		29 May 2019	17 July 2020	39	14	12	13	65	60	+5	035.90
Sturm Graz		17 July 2020	Present	66	33	14	19	123	78	+45	050.00
Total				228	115	50	63	419	287	+132	050.44