Early career While still playing for Bayern, he had already graduated from
Cologne Sport University, in December 2005, after taking a course on coaching. From 5 September 2006, he began coaching
Red Bull Salzburg's
reserve side. After the departure of
Lothar Matthäus as the assistant of head coach
Giovanni Trapattoni, Fink stepped up and became the new assistant. Fink took over as head coach of
FC Ingoldstadt on 4 January 2008, replacing
Jürgen Press, who was sacked on
New Year's Day. He appointed
Heiko Vogel as his assistant. His first match was a 3–1 win against
VfB Stuttgart II. Ingolstadt finished the
2007–08 season in second place. Ingolstadt started the
2008–09 season by losing to
Hamburger SV in the first round of the German Cup. Fink was fired on 22 April 2009. He finished with a record of 16 wins, 11 draws, and 17 losses. His final match was a 3–2 loss against
SC Freiburg.
Basel On 9 June 2009, Fink was appointed manager of
Basel as the replacement for
Christian Gross. Fink took his assistant Vogel with him. His first match was a 2–0 loss to
St. Gallen on 12 July 2009. In domestic affairs, Basel swept the board in the 2009/10 season. Despite a poor start to the season, Fink's side came back to win the
2010 Super League title on the last day of the season with an away win against favourites
Young Boys at the
Stade de Suisse. Young prospect
Valentin Stocker and club legend
Scott Chipperfield gave Basel the goals in the 2–0 victory on 16 May. Basel won the
Swiss Cup Final 2010 with a 6–0 victory over
Lausanne-Sport on 9 May. With Fink Basel also won the
2011 Super League title and the 2011
Uhrencup. Fink left the club in October 2011. His final match was a 5–1 win against Schötz in the Swiss Cup.
Fwayo Tembo left
Basel after he accused club coach Thorsten Fink of making racist remarks towards him during a training session. Fink is reported to have told a collaborator to "get the monkey down from the tree."
Hamburger SV On 13 October 2011, Fink signed a contract with
Hamburger SV to manage the German
Bundesliga club through to 2014. In HSV's first nine games under Fink they were unbeaten, going into the winter break in thirteenth place. The team eventually finished
fifteenth, avoiding a first ever relegation by five points. In the
2012–13 season, HSV recorded a much improved seventh-place finish. However, during
the season Hamburg lost to
Karlsruher SC in the first round of the German Cup. the team equaled the club's record Bundesliga defeat, losing 9–2 at the
Allianz Arena to
Bayern Munich. Following a run of disastrous results, during which Hamburger SV picked up only four points from their first five league games of the
2013–14 Bundesliga season, and with the club in 15th place in the league table, Fink was sacked with immediate effect on 16 September 2013. "We were no longer confident that Thorsten Fink was capable of turning the team around and that was why we took this decision (to sack Fink). Also it is apparent that he had 'outside troubles' which could have contributed to his poor results. His final match was a 6–2 loss to
Borussia Dortmund. He finished with a record of 23 wins, 18 draws and 27 losses in 68 matches.
APOEL On 10 January 2015, Fink signed a contract until the end of the 2014–15 season, with the option of a further season with the reigning
Cypriot champions
APOEL, replacing
Georgios Donis who was fired on 6 January 2015. His first match was a 2–1 loss to AEL Limassol. Following a run of disappointing performances and one day after a questionable 1–0 loss to
Apollon Limassol, Fink was sacked by
APOEL on 11 May 2015, although at that moment the team were two points clear at the top of the
league with only two matches remaining. He was given a two-year contract plus an option He was also in negotiations with
Hannover 96. On 17 July 2015, in his first match, Austria won 3–0 in the Austrian Cup. On 26 July 2015, in his first league match, Austria defeated
Wolfsberg 2–0 away from home. On 23 April 2016, Austria Wien defeated
SV Mattersburg 9–0. He finished the 2015–16 season in third place. Austria Wien started the
2016–17 season with a 1–0 win against
Kukësi in the
Europa League on 14 July 2016. After bad results and standing in seventh place Fink was dismissed on 25 February. His final match was a 2–1 loss to
Admira Wacker Mödling on 24 February 2018.
Grasshoppers Fink became manager of
Grasshoppers on 23 April 2018. His first match was a 1–0 win against Lausanne-Sport on 28 April 2018. He started the 2018–19 season with a 2–0 loss against Young Boys. After disastrous results of only one point out of his last eight matches in the
Swiss Super League His last match was a 1–3 loss against
Luzern on 2 March 2019. Fink managed to bring in the first two titles in club history of Vissel Kobe, winning the
Emperors Cup and
Japanese Super Cup in 2020. On 22 September 2020, Fink decided to resign to return to his family.
Riga In January 2022, Fink was appointed head coach of
Riga. On 16 May 2022, Fink left Riga to take on a managerial job at another club.
Al-Nasr In May 2022, Fink became head coach of the
UAE Pro League club
Al-Nasr. In November, he was dismissed as the club was third from bottom in the
league table.
Sint-Truiden In May 2023, Fink was appointed head coach of Belgian side
Sint-Truiden, succeeding
Bernd Hollerbach.
Genk On 5 June 2024, Fink joined
Genk in Belgium. He led Genk to the top position in the regular
2024–25 Belgian Pro League season, but the club finished in third place after the champions' play-offs. He was dismissed by Genk on 15 December 2025. ==Career statistics==