‘I received calls from the gambling mafia’

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Mr. Fringer, is it true that your love of football almost cost you your life?
Which story do you mean?

The one with the Sihl.
Yes that’s right. Our family barely had any money. But because I started delivering newspapers at a young age, I was eventually able to afford a nice football made of real leather as a child. That was my pride and joy. But one day the ball flew over the trees into the Sihl, which was flooded that day. I then wanted to jump into the river and get it, but luckily a teacher stopped me. That probably saved my life, but unfortunately I had to watch my beloved ball float towards Zurich.

You grew up in Adliswil, a suburb of Zurich. How was your childhood?
When I was still a baby, my parents separated and my biological Austrian father moved to the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Then my mother married an Italian, who then felt like my father and worked as a magazine clerk. We lived in humble circumstances.

What does that mean concretely?
We lived in a small apartment, on the right the train and the street, on the left the church. We barely had any money. When we went for a walk, we didn’t get a compartment as a reward at the end, because we simply couldn’t afford it. Once I wanted great toys for Christmas, but the money was only enough for the basic necessities. So I got braces and a bag of oranges.

According to legend, your first word was football.
That’s right, the ball has fascinated me since I was a little kid. When I started delivering newspapers, I always read the sports section. Then the desire grew in me to later work in the football business.

What kind of child were you?
For a long time I was always the smallest, had a big “whisker”, Marchen spots and red hair. But I was not fooled, I was mainly the leader. Looking back, it’s safe to say I was hyperactive. I always wanted action and also did a lot of “seich”.

How did you get into football?
Only late, to the C-Juniors of FC Adliswil. I played there until I was 20 and did an internship as an auto parts salesman. In 1978 I went to Geneva to study French and work in a Jaguar garage. In that time I didn’t play at all for over half a year. At one point I asked Chênois if I could train with the youth team.

But by the time you got into top-flight football, you were already 23.
After a year and a half in Chênois, the club wanted to take me to the first team training camp, but I didn’t want to sacrifice ten days’ holiday for that and canceled. But then the best midfielder got injured. From that moment on I belonged to the 1th team.

But after that you didn’t have a great career as a player. What was it?
I was physically weak and often had severe back problems. Nevertheless, I played in national teams B and A for a number of years, also because I could read football well.

But in 1985 you suddenly had no job anymore.
At that time SC Zug went bankrupt. I was 28 and then received an offer from FC Altdorf as a player-coach in the 1st division. Looking back, that was my taste as a trainer. This time was very educational. I had to learn to put myself in front of the team, be a good role model and tell colleagues you won’t take them in the field. I immediately enjoyed it and realized that I was better as a coach than as a player.

What kind of football did you play at Altdorf?
A modern one, like Ottmar Hitzfeld did with us in Zug. With counter pressure and attack the opponent on the 16er.

What did your players think?
This was new territory for her. The previous coach always told defenders not to cross the center line. And now they suddenly had to put a lot of pressure on them.

After five years in Schaffhausen, you finally became an Aarau coach.
When I signed there, Aarau was already a leg and a half in Nati B. In the last game as Schaffhausen’s coach, I heard through the speaker that Aarau had managed after all. Then I knew: yes, I will be national coach A from next season.

With Aarau you became champions in the first year in a sensational way. When did you know this was possible?
When I came to Aarau, I thought: I’ll show you, because I had just missed promotion twice at Schaffhausen. At that time there was another qualification in which we surprisingly made it to the final round. When I greeted the players after the winter break, I started talking about the championship title. The players didn’t even know how good they were at the time. The training camp in Malaysia was also decisive for the victory.

Why?
I asked a lot from the players, but I also gave a lot. After each game they were free to go until the next afternoon. This created a putty. But something else happened in Malaysia.

What?
I suddenly received calls from the gambling mafia. One wanted to pay me CHF 10,000 if we played 1-1 in a friendly match. But he had come to the wrong person with me.

In 1995, you became the first Swiss-born man to become a Bundesliga coach. What memories do you have of Stuttgart?
That was a different competition. When you looked at the parking lot with all the players’ cars, you thought you were in “Denver Clan”.

In the ZDF sports studio you scored five times on the goal wall…
… and the sixth still went to the edge. This appearance was important to me and my reputation. If I had shot past the wall three times, everyone would have said, “What is that little Swiss doing here? How is he supposed to teach the players?”

Her ascent continued. A year later you were already national coach.
It was not ideal that I then took over the national team. I might have been better off staying in Stuttgart.

Why?
As a coach you have to be in the right place at the right time, but the national team was in a difficult situation at the time. Experienced workers had resigned and there was extreme coalition formation. We then traveled to Azerbaijan without a test match. The rest is known. We lost 0-1, the so-called Debaku. Then Blick launched a campaign against me.

Your next engagement also ended unhappy.
Back then, Erich Vogel did everything he could to get me to the GC, then did even more to get me out. Therefore, despite the championship title, I was released with a lead of 16 points.

That was a turning point in your career. Until then it was always rising, you had just turned 40, but had already been champion twice and coached the Bundesliga and national teams. But then came the low blows.
In 1999 my marriage broke down and I had to move. Not being able to see my kids every day after that really pulled the rug out from under my feet. That was very painful. I even hoped that the then Swiss champion Servette, who was looking for a coach, would stop calling me because I didn’t want to work so far from my children.

In 2002 you started stamping. How difficult was that for you?
It wasn’t easy, but it helped that I grew up humble and knew what it means to be down.

How did people react when a well-known coach suddenly found you unemployed?
There were different reactions. Some were beaming, while others were okay with me being open about it and being a role model. Later, after my time as head of sports in Lucerne, I was unemployed again. When I saw a Toyota RAV4 there, I photographed it, sent the photo to my colleagues and wrote: “I now have my fourth company car because I am behaving exemplarily.”

In 2003, the phase of your exotic jobs abroad began. Was that an escape?
Yes of course. The distance from home helped me process what had happened.

You worked as a coach in three countries. What comes to mind when you think of al-Wahda in Abu Dhabi?
First of all, I had to retake the driving test there. When I rode with the traffic controllers and stopped at the stop sign, they reacted with total annoyance and told me to just drive. The trips to the away games were also special. On the way back you always went to McDonald’s to get food. The players then threw all the garbage on the floor of the car. They were all spoiled people who had servants in the house.

Keyword Apollon Limassol in Cyprus?
The craziness. Although I still had a contract for a year, I left voluntarily because many things there were corrupt. There were situations when two players ran to the left while the ball went to the right. Or another time the opponent left his three best players on the bench.

Why?
Because our club bought those players, but the Cypriot opponent found out.

Tagged PAOK Thessaloniki in Greece?
The fans were incredibly passionate and attacked the players when they lost. Some of my players were really scared. Then when I went to the president because my players, including myself, hadn’t been paid for a long time, I lost my job again. They didn’t want a coach to interfere.

You have been working as a TV expert for Blue since 2017. It was a rough start, you were physically attacked by Christian Constantin.
That was a long time ago for me. I don’t hold a grudge or fight with things that happened. It was also a good advertisement for Blue TV (laughs). For me, this job as a TV expert has come full circle.

What do you mean?
I always had visions. As a boy I wanted to do something in football. Then all of a sudden, out of the blue, I was playing in the NLA. After that I got the vision to start working as a coach. That also came true. Later I thought I would like to work as a sports director, so I did a sports management course. That also happened with my job as head of sports in Lucerne. And then the thought came to me very early on that I would like to work as a TV pundit, as Udo Lattek once did. It’s great that I’ve been able to do this for years.

You are now 66. What is your next vision?
I don’t have visions anymore, I just want to enjoy life. I recently bought a motorcycle, an Indian 1200. I’ve ridden it a few times now.

You have been in a relationship with Sabina since 2008 and you got married on your birthday in 2018. Is this a trick so that you never forget the wedding day?
I’m one of the few a woman got for their birthday (laughs). Believe it or not, when I celebrated my birthday in 2019, neither my wife nor I realized that this is our first wedding anniversary.

In 2011, your wife’s daughter died in a traffic accident at the age of 20. How did you deal with that?
That was cruel. We were both on our deathbeds in the hospital for 27 hours at the time, but unfortunately she had no chance of survival.

How could you cope with this blow of fate?
We have learned that you have to accept fate. There is no self-pity, even though the first years were very difficult. My wife drove past the place where she died every day for years and saw the picture of her daughter posted there. The way my wife handled it is absolutely exemplary. I was able to support them because I also had my life crises, even if they are of course not comparable. When I see my wife enjoying life again today, I am very moved.

Source : Blick