The unexpected twist that took Bristol City boss Gerhard Struber from Insurance to Football | OneFootball

FLW takes a look why the ex-Barnsley man decided to leave a comfortable corporate career to take up football coaching full-time

Bristol City boss Gerhard Struber's path to the dugout was far from normal, and he has ex-Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick to thank for it.

In fact, the 48-year-old once put aside a career in insurance to return to coaching - but why did he do it?

FLW takes a look at the story of how Struber decided to leave a comfortable corporate career which has now ended up with the Austrian managing in England for the second time.

The reason why Bristol City manager Gerhard Struber put football "behind" him

In all fairness, Struber's entry into a 9-5 job seemingly came out of necessity rather than choice.

After two cruciate ligament tears and a swollen knee forced him to confront the end of his playing days in his mid-twenties, the former midfielder worked his way up to the position of sales manager in the insurance sector after going to business college.

As a player, he was an Austrian Bundesliga regular for over 13 seasons and had won both the league and Super Cup with SV Austria Salzburg.

"I had put football behind me," Struber would later reflect in an article with RB Salzburg in 2024, revealing how he had completed an MBA to help with his career away from the sport.

However, when his hometown club SV Kuchl faced relegation, their chairman persuaded Struber to start coaching part-time - and things took off from there once he played Salzburg in a friendly.

When Ralf Ragnick spotted something special in Gerhard Struber

After the aforementioned friendly, Rangnick - who was the director of football for both RB Salzburg and Leipzig at the time, made contact with Struber after watching his Kuchl side in action.

Struber explained to RB Salzburg's media team: "Ralf Rangnick invited me to have a conversation after the match. With all his sense of excitement, he convinced me to take the route to becoming a professional football coach."

On actually deciding to leave his job, the Austrian added that "it was a very brave decision at the time, as I had a good job with great prospects. You can't explain everything logically in life. Sometimes you just have to trust your instincts".

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many people advised against Struber leaving his job in insurance for professional coaching, but his wife proved to be the decisive voice.

When she asked what he would choose to do if he only had a year to live, the answer was football - and Struber reflected on this by continuing: "My wife has generally always been with me and supported me in my journey, also in the knowledge that it might take me away from home.

"I am extremely grateful for that still."

Gerhard Struber went from rescuing Barnsley to Champions League football

After leaving the insurance sector, Struber began his full-time coaching career with Red Bull Salzburg's U15 side in 2014. In another interview with Sky Sports, the Austrian claimed he didn’t miss his old job, but it was "very logical," and "football has moved in that direction."

You could argue his real breakthrough moment, though, came five years later when he inherited a Barnsley team fighting for survival in the Championship and not managing.

The Tykes were bottom of the table in November 2019, without a win in their previous fifteen matches and Struber implemented a completely new style of play.

In the final two games, Barnsley secured back-to-back wins against Nottingham Forest and Brentford in stoppage time - with Struber recalling: "It was an emotional explosion.

"It was a very difficult situation at Barnsley. The challenge was to develop a completely new style of play but every game was like a knockout game, so important. Especially at the end. I will never forget it."

As previously mentioned, Struber talked about how football is moving more towards data like the corporate job he once had, but this ultimately makes it "very helpful" for him when coaching, he continued to tell Sky Sports.

"Many clubs are analysing the data. This has changed very much in the last few years. It is very helpful because it lets you work out how you have to train. The analysis helps."

Before taking the Robins job on a three-year deal, Struber returned to Salzburg to manage the senior team where they competed at the highest levels of European football.