A Swiss coast St. Pauli wakes up

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St. Pauli. The Reeperbahn, the neighborhood. Germany’s sinful red-light district.

But the legendary district of Hamburg is also home to the mystical FC St. Pauli with its unique fan culture. With its left-wing fan base, the club has a great attraction far beyond Hamburg. A socio-cultural melting pot with great appeal.

When the players march in at the Millerntor to the sounds of “Hells Bells”, the skull and crossbones flags wave in the wind. And it’s not just 30,000 fans in the stadium going wild with AC/DC’s cult song. Eleven million people in Germany sympathize with the club, which is so pleasantly different and which, even with a manageable budget, always provides a sporting sensation.

Roots in Schaffhausen and the US

St. Pauli entered the 2nd Bundesliga season again ambitiously last summer. But it does not work, the club threatens to fall back in the regional competition after the preliminary round. Coach Timo Schultz is fired. And one day before Christmas, his then 29-year-old assistant coach Fabian Hürzeler becomes the new boss.

whore? The name doesn’t just sound like Switzerland. The youngest coach in German professional football even has a Swiss passport. His father is from Schaffhausen. He is a dentist, emigrates to the US. And start a family in Houston. Fabian was also born in Texas, which automatically gave him American citizenship.

Internship years with Mehmet Scholl

The family moves to Munich, where the parents still run a dental practice. Fabian is a junior at Bayern, but then does not make the jump in the team of Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes at the time. He plays under Mehmet Scholl for the second team. “I learned a lot from him, it was an inspiring time,” says Hürzeler.

After an interlude at TSG Hoffenheim, he became a player-coach at the age of 21 at FC Pipinsried from the fifth division in his native Bavaria. He is promoted, at the same time still works for the DFB and moves to Hamburg in 2020.

He doesn’t want to be another Nagelsmann

The rest is a fairytale. After the winter break, St. Pauli won six games in a row under Hürzeler. Is he a laptop trainer? “Every coach has a laptop,” he laughs. Is he already being compared to Julian Nagelsmann? “These kinds of comparisons are inevitable. But I’m still miles away from a Nagelsmann. And copying someone, that never works.” Hürzeler, the football fan, wants to go his own way. “I’m young. But I am not a young coach, because I already have nine years of experience in that role.”

Hürzeler, who often skis with his family in Davos and often visits his aunt in Schaffhausen, has a close relationship with Switzerland.

What are the three most iconic football clubs in Germany? Maybe Union Berlin, 1860 Munich and FC St. Pauli? What do you have in common? A bus with a Swiss passport. Urs Fischer, Maurizio Jacobacci, Fabian Hürzeler.

Source : Blick