Who is Raphael Wicky? The newest name to emerge in West Brom new manager hunt
Raphael Wicky is the latest name to surface as West Bromwich Albion look to press on with replacing Carlos Corberan this month. Albion are hunting their first new manager of the Bilkul era after Corberan departed for boyhood club Valencia on Christmas Eve.
Albion have been steered through the festive period by Chris Brunt, Damia Abella and Boaz Myhill, but they will now aim to have their new permanent boss in place by the next Championship game, when they welcome Stoke City to The Hawthorns on the 18th January - although they have the FA Cup tie with Premier League Bournemouth firstly, next Saturday.
Wicky has shot to the top of the betting with various bookmakers, above the likes of Luke Williams, John Eustace and Steven Schumacher; the Swiss, a former international midfielder with 75 caps to his name, boasts an impressive playing CV with stints at Werder Bremen, Atletico Madrid and Hamburg.
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When he moved into management, Wicky began by coaching the youth of FC Thun, then Servette and then onto Basel in his native Switzerland. He even spent a year managing the first-team in 2017-18, before he made for the USA - where he'd actually finished his playing career with Chivas. Wicky worked coaching the US under 17s and then took over the reins of MLS outfit Chicago Fire for a couple of years.
In 2021, Wicky returned to Europe and in June 2022 he took over at Young Boys back in Switzerland. There, he led the club to the Swiss title and the Swiss Cup in his first season and managed in the Champions League this past season, although the club parted company with him after a poor run of results in March of last year.
