Karsten Wettberg

Karsten Wettberg (10 November 1941 – 29 March 2026) was a German football manager. He was one of the most successful football managers in German amateur football.

On professional level, he coached SpVgg Unterhaching and 1860 Munich in the 2. Bundesliga.

Biography Wettberg was born in Friesack, near Berlin on 10 November 1941.

He joined the German postal service, whom he worked for until his retirement in July 2002. He entered local politics in April that year, being elected to his local district council in Kelheim. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2008 Bavarian Landtag elections for the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

Wettberg spent his playing career exclusively with Bavarian amateur clubs, eventually becoming player coach of SV Saal. He entered the top league of Bavarian football for the first time in 1980, when he took over as manager of MTV Ingolstadt, the club just having been relegated from the 2. Bundesliga Süd. With MTV, he won the Bayernliga in its first season there but in that season, 1980–81, no promotion from the third to the second tier was available as the 2. Bundesliga was reduced from two to one division. He stayed with the club until 1983.

He coached local rival ESV Ingolstadt after this, a club that had just dropped from the second to the fourth division in two seasons. He won the tier-four Landesliga Bayern-Süd with ESV in 1984 and earned promotion to the Bayernliga. ESV, a club in decline, finished eighth in the league in 1985, but came only 16th in 1986, disappearing from the Bayernliga for good.

Wettberg coached SpVgg Landshut in 1986–87, the club having won the Bayernliga title in 1985–86 but not having been prepared to take the risk of turning professional and declined the right to take part in the 2nd Bundesliga promotion round. He finished second with the club in 1990 and won the Bayernliga the year after. Under his guidance, from February 1990 to the end of the Bayernliga season in June 1991, the club did not lose a game, remaining unbeaten for 54 games. For his achievement with the Munich club, the then-major of Munich, Georg Kronawitter, crowned Wettberg the König von Giesing, the King of Giesing. In the 2. Bundesliga, Wettberg was not as successful with the club, being sacked after a loss to VfB Leipzig. Wettberg successfully took Seligenporten into the Regionalliga Bayern, stepping down from his role at the end of the 2012–13 season to take up coaching at amateur club ATSV 1871 Kelheim.

Wettberg died on 29 March 2026, at the age of 84.

Honours 2. Bundesliga promotion: 1989, 1991 Bayernliga: 1981, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 2000 Landesliga Bayern-Süd: 1984 Landesliga Bayern-Mitte: 1999, 2003