Peter Hyballa (born 5 December 1975) is a German professional football manager who most recently was the head coach of Eerste Divisie club NAC Breda. He also served as manager at clubs in Germany, Namibia, Austria, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark and Slovakia.
Before his career as a manager, Hyballa coached various youth teams in his native Germany, including the U19 sides of Arminia Bielefeld, VfL Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund.
In 2010, he took over as head coach of 2. Bundesliga club Alemannia Aachen. He then managed the Red Bull Salzburg reserves and Sturm Graz in Austria for two years. From 2014 to 2016, he was assistant and youth coach at Bayer Leverkusen. Hyballa was then appointed manager of NEC in 2016, where he quickly became known for his fanatical way of coaching, his controversial statements in interviews and behavior during matches. He moved to Slovakian club DAC Dunajská Streda in 2018, after being fired in NEC due to poor results. There, he had some success, leading the club to a second-place finish in 2019. Shorter spells with NAC Breda and Wisła Kraków followed, where he was dismissed after conflicts with management (in Poland with Jakub Blaszczykowski and Kazimierz Kmiecik). In May 2021, he became the head coach of Danish club Esbjerg fB, but resigned a few months later amid clashes with first-team players and reports of physical and mental abuse. Again, shorter stints followed at Türkgücü München and AS Trenčín, before returning to NAC Breda.
Early life
Hyballa was born in Bocholt, North Rhine-Westphalia to Yvonne and Hans-Joachim Hyballa. His mother is Dutch and hails from Rotterdam, and met his German father, a deacon, in Hamburg in 1971.
Managerial career
Early career
In his first coaching positions, Hyballa was initially in charge of youth teams, for example at his hometown clubs Borussia Bocholt and 1. FC Bocholt, where he coached the U17s for two years. In 1998 he was discovered by Preußen Münster, where he became responsible for the U17 for the next three years. In 2001, Hyballa moved from Münster to Arminia Bielefeld, where he took on the position of U19 youth coach. After a short stint from 2002 to 2003 at Namibian club Ramblers Windhoek, where had his first head coaching job, he returned to Germany.
From 2003 to 2007, Hyballa coached the U19s of VfL Wolfsburg and in 2007, he led the team to the final of the DFB U19 Cup, which was lost 1–2 to 1860 Munich.
In the summer of 2007, Hyballa took over the U19s from Borussia Dortmund. There, he won the 2008 Westphalia Cup, the 2009 West German title, finished runner-up of the 2009 DFB U19 Cup as well as runner-up to the 2008–09 Under 19 Bundesliga. The cup final was lost to the youth team of SC Freiburg on penalties, and in the final of the German U19 championship Hyballa's team was defeated by Thomas Tuchel's U19s from 1. FSV Mainz 05 with 1–2 the final score.
On 15 April 2010, Hyballa signed a two-year contract as head coach of Rot-Weiss Essen. After the club filed for bankruptcy on 4 June 2010, the contract was dissolved and Alemannia Aachen hired him as head coach of their 2. Bundesliga team from the 2010–11 season on a two-year contract. On 13 September 2011, Hyballa and his assistant coach Eric van der Luer were given leave of absence, and their contracts were terminated by mutual agreement. At that time, Alemannia Aachen only had three points and scored one goal, which meant that they were bottom of the league table.
From January 2012 to June 2012, Peter Hyballa was the coach of the Red Bull Salzburg reserves, where he was tasked with transitioning youth players to the first team.
For the 2012–13 season, Hyballa signed a two-year contract with Sturm Graz, but was dismissed while in the race for a UEFA Europa League spot on 22 April 2013.
For the final games of the 2013–14 season, Hyballa returned to Germany as Sascha Lewandowski's assistant coach at Bayer Leverkusen. Lewandowski had become caretaker coach after Sami Hyypiä was dismissed from as manager. Both signed a contract until the end of the season and achieved the goal of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League. After the Bundesliga season was over, Hyballa stayed with Leverkusen in a new position; in June 2014 he signed a two-year contract as head coach of the Leverkusen U19s.
After the end of his contract at the end in June 2016, Hyballa left Leverkusen.
NEC
In May 2016, Eredivisie club NEC announced that Hyballa would become manager of the club from the summer, signing a two-year contract.