Formerly a fang, today a grenade: three companions talk about the new FCB coach Schultz

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To start with: Timo Schultz (45) used to be a referee. The new coach of FC Basel is the son of a referee teacher from East Frisia. “So of course I had to be a referee too,” he once explained in “Being Timo Schultz,” a project of the St. Pauli fan podcast “Millernton,” which accompanied him for a year. It is therefore quite possible that Basel’s coaches will have more understanding for the Swiss rulers next season.

Put jokes aside. A coach with experience in the 2nd Bundesliga and in the St. Pauli youth team at FCB, who still sees itself as a top Swiss club? Call Betim Fazliji (24). “I can only congratulate FC Basel,” says the Rheintaler, who moved from St. Gallen to St. Pauli last summer. “FCB gets a coach with Timo Schultz who plays attractive football and is great on a human level.”

Schultz has impressed the Kosovo international. “As a player you can always talk openly with him. Even if you are not part of the starting eleven, he has a listening ear for you, perhaps even more than for the regular players. He knows how to create a positive atmosphere in a team. And he is a coach who tackles things clearly, but always wants to find solutions together with the team.”

University degree in history and physical education

Roger Stilz (46) from Eastern Switzerland has been at home in Hamburg for almost two decades, apart from his stations in Nuremberg, Belgium and Regensburg. As head of the St. Pauli youth academy, he was Schultz’s boss for four years. But the two met much earlier. “It was 2004, Schulle played for the second team of Holstein Kiel, I played for the Hamburg neighborhood club Altona 93. We met in central midfield. Those were toxic duels.” His path led Schultz to St. Pauli, he became part of the team that was promoted from the regional league to the Bundesliga between 2005 and 2010 under Holger Stanislawski.

At the end of his career, Schultz even made four short appearances in the Bundesliga. “An absolute team player, a worker, a tusk on the field,” describes Torsten Mattuschka (42), who once became a club legend at Union Berlin and is now TV expert for the 2nd Bundesliga at Sky. “And personally, Timo is a grenade anyway. He stood for what FC St. Pauli has always distinguished. » The man with a university degree in history and sport remains loyal to the club and will become team manager, assistant coach, youth coach and head coach in the summer of 2020 after his resignation. In the 2021/22 season you get a taste of promotion to the Bundesliga, you play exciting attacking football at times, Schultz wins the derby against Hamburger SV three times and musician Thees Uhlmann writes a song for him. “You should be my last St. Pauli coach,” he wishes.

The fans really wanted to keep him

But then comes December 6, 2022. The first half of the season is over, the football is still attacking and often beautiful to watch, but St. Pauli are only 15th, with a meager three wins from 17 games, points level with the first relegation zone . The club management pulls the string: the coach has to leave. But instead of relief and anticipation of a new trainer, the bosses encounter misunderstanding, anger and indignation. More than 12,000 fans sign a petition demanding that Schultz become head coach again.

Sure, the man is a club icon and a popular figure in the skull and crossbones Kiezklub. Someone you feel understands the values ​​of the club and is able to bring them to life. At the same time, it exudes the mischievousness and self-mockery that is valued in St. Pauli, as the club sees itself as an alternative to the usual professional teams and the mechanisms of the modern football business. “The good conscience of German football,” Stilz calls the club.

But that is not everything. “We played some really good games in the first half, but we just didn’t reward ourselves. We firmly believed that this would pay off in the long run,” said Schultz’s ex-protégé Fazliji. “I said in the winter that I would have believed he was 100 percent capable of the turnaround, I’m still convinced of that,” says Sky expert Mattuschka. “If you look at statistics like expected goals, the team played great under Timo. But the results were not good.” What the coach failed to do: to catch the weighty summer departures on the offensive. “The team has always created chances, sometimes extremely many. But if you have no one to do it at the front … If they go in go, he is still with St. Pauli today.”

Stilz: ‘I think this fresh face is good for FCB’

And so the Northern Lights are now making their way to Switzerland. There are plenty of questions: after 17 years in St. Pauli, how does Schultz work outside the special biotope at the Hamburg neighborhood club? How soon will he be able to master the Swiss Super League and its idiosyncrasies? How does he deal with the turbulent Basel environment? What happens if no one in Basel sinks the stuff up front with no frills?

His old companion Roger Stilz is confident. “The league and FCB can look forward to an ambitious coach. He always wanted the greatest possible success: as a player, as a youth coach, as a coach of the first team,” he says. help team. From a distance I think FCB is doing well with this fresh face and also one or two new angles that Timo brings. I know he’s looking forward to the job.”

One thing also seems certain: it must be cheerful in northwestern Switzerland. “You can also look forward to his East Frisian humor,” says Stilz. “Schulle is a man who likes to laugh. That is important for him in everyday life.” Fazliji explains: “His humor is very direct, very dry. Sometimes you don’t know at first: is he serious or is he joking? Insanely sweet.” It seems that not only the Swiss referees will be able to laugh more in Basel in the future.

Source : Blick