Bundesliga
Great motivator: Henriksen should save Mainz 05 from relegation
Should keep the class with Mainz: Bo Henriksen. photo
© Torsten Silz/dpa
Once again a Dane is supposed to help Mainz 05 in an emergency. The penultimate Bundesliga table signs Bo Henriksen in the relegation battle.
The new head coach As a great motivator, Bo Henriksen wants to emotionally awaken the players of FSV Mainz 05, who are threatened with relegation. “Football has to be fun.
The players have to believe in themselves, have courage and self-confidence,” said the 49-year-old Dane during his introduction, brimming with enthusiasm for his difficult mission. “We have to win, that’s the message. Faith will come back.”
Jan Siewert’s successor, who was released after three months and eleven games without a win, will lead training for the first time on Wednesday and will face his first test on Saturday in the second-to-last Bundesliga home game against FC Augsburg (3.30 p.m./Sky). . “The players have to have the courage to play. We’ll go out and party,” announced Henriksen, who has no problem with the pressure to succeed: “That’s part of the job, not to be afraid. We know what we’re up against “We have to stand together.”
Contract also applies to the 2nd league
“It’s all about emotions,” agreed Mainz board member Christian Heidel of the coach, who will be hired until 2026. The contract also applies to the 2nd league. Henriksen had been coaching the Swiss first division club FC Zurich until last weekend. In October 2022, he took over the Swiss when they were also in last place in the Swiss Super League and secured relegation.
“We have looked intensively at our current situation and analyzed which type of coach with which footballing approach suits us in this difficult sporting situation,” said Heidel. Henriksen is a coach “who has succeeded in forming teams repeatedly in his career and under very different conditions.” With his positive energy he would fit in very well with Mainz 05.
The Rheinhessen look more often to Northern Europe and, before Siewert, had hired the Dane Bo Svensson, who left on his own accord after three points from nine Bundesliga games, 18th place in the table and the round of 16 exit in the DFB Cup. Henriksen himself had played football against Svensson: “He was a better defender than I was a striker.” As a coach, he is the third Dane after Svensson and Kasper Hjulmand in Mainz.
Henriksen doesn’t want to be compared with his famous, also very extroverted predecessor at Rheinhessen: Jürgen Klopp. “I’m really good at being me,” he said.
Danish TV expert: “It’s a huge job”
“Bo Henriksen had a good coaching job, but this is a different category. This is a huge job,” commented football expert for the Danish television station TV 2 Sport, Morten Bruun, on the move. “But it is also a very, very difficult mission that has been given to him.” With his charisma, Henriksen is someone who can generate new energy. “Mainz needs something different than what was before. They need energy and a lot of testosterone.”
The Danish “Ekstra Bladet” wrote that ex-Schalke player Ebbe Sand was involved with his excellent contacts behind the scenes. The newspaper apparently meant Sand’s good relationship with Heidel. Sand and Henriksen were in Mainz on Monday to clarify the final details. “If anyone can save Mainz from relegation, it is Bo,” Sand was quoted as saying by the paper.