A day in summer, around the hour when the night displaces the sun. At that time, life really started to return to St. Pauli, that Hamburg district that is perhaps shaped like no other in Germany by a football club. Everywhere pennants, flags, white skulls on a black background. FC St. Pauli determines everyday life, the rhythm, the atmosphere in the district – also for the person who sits in a restaurant in the neighborhood on this summer evening. The name is unimportant at this point, just this much: The person knows the club from within. And she has a little announcement to make: “This year,” says the neighborhood expert, “is the year in which we will overtake HSV.”
Just a little joke, a boldly formulated crazy idea? One, two, three seconds pass. But no waving off, no backing down. Instead: a confident look. The corners of his mouth rise in a triumphant grin.
On a gray October day, the Hamburg people would call the meteorological situation “Schietwetter”, the St. Pauli trainer Timo Schultz sits in a box in the Millerntor Stadium and listens to the story. How does he, Schultz, assess the internal balance of power in the city? “I do not constantly dwell on comparing myself with HSV,” he says, “with that I can neither go forward nor backward.” The seconds pass again. Schultz holds his gaze, his facial expressions do not allow any further interpretation: he sees it as soberly as it sounds.
St. Pauli has been at the top of the table for weeks, seven points ahead of HSV
But of course Schultz has heard what is being discussed up and down in the sports city of Hamburg, in the media, on the S-Bahn, in front of kebab shops. This year it could really happen: St. Pauli in front of Hamburger SV, underdog in front of the establishment, for the first time in the history of these two very different clubs. The Kiezklub has been at the top of the table in the second division for weeks, seven points ahead of HSV, but also ahead of FC Schalke or Werder Bremen, the opponents this Saturday (1.30 p.m.). Just a snapshot? Sure, that would be the logical reflex now. But the truth is also that the Paulians have been the dominant force in the lower house for the whole calendar year, no team has scored more points during this time, no team plays more attractive football.
At this point a small warning: In the following lines, a bit of folklore cannot be avoided, but this depends on the object of observation. St. Pauli is a special football club that is based on passion and a charming set of values. What makes this club and its success story so special can not be explained better by anyone than Timo Schultz, who has been the supreme happiness officer in the neighborhood for a little more than a year. He himself puts it this way: “If we fight with the same weapons as our competitors, then we have no chance”. And: “We have to choose things that we do in our own way, which we inevitably do better than the others.”
Schultz, 44, born in East Frisia, came to St. Pauli in 2005 as a midfield clearer with a rather mediocre footballer vita: Werder Bremen II, VfB Lübeck, Harburger TB, Holstein Kiel. At that time, FC St. Pauli was a collection of committed rumble footballers, nothing was left of the “World Cup winners” team that had played in the Bundesliga four years earlier and beat FC Bayern. The club had just dived into the third division and was on the verge of bankruptcy. However: The quarter stood together, the supporters collected donations, including celebrities like Bela B von der Doctors.
The “Bokalwunder” is part of the legend of the club. At that time, Schultz internalized the belief in the football field mentality
However, more income was urgently needed – and that was precisely what this bunch of “failed and half-talented” people, as Schultz calls the team at the time, should bring. St. Pauli eliminated one high-class team after the other in the DFB Cup, all with a “B” at the beginning: Burghausen, Bochum, Berlin, Bremen. The “Bokalwunder” is part of the legend of St. Pauli. The bonuses ensured the continued existence of the club. They only fail in the semi-finals – to Bayern. For Schultz it was a time of recognition: Football works best when you meet with “brutal honesty”. This is the only way, he believes, that a group can be formed that has the genuine we-feeling of a football field troop. And if you have to say unpleasant things for it, then you just say them.
Of course, Schultz knows that FC St. Pauli is not free from contradictions either. The ideals of the club include anti-racism, anti-sexism and anti-fascism, which in many places is also a bit ridiculed because only convinced racists, sexists and fascists have something to object to. At St. Pauli, left-wing rebellion is mixed with the capitalist needs of the industry, as can also be seen on a large advertising banner that hangs in the office at Millerntor. “Kiezhelden-Enabler” is written on it – among other things, the logo of a betting company is emblazoned above it.
“4-4-2 marshalling yard” doesn’t work on St. Pauli, says Schultz. He lets fast train football play
This illustrates very well what the job of a coach at St. Pauli is all about: A permanent state of emergency and high moral expectations have to be moderated – and by the way, not entirely unimportant, to score one or the other goal. Schultz manages this balancing act, he is now a Paulian through and through. After his playing career, he was first assistant coach of the professional team, then he coached the U17, the U19 and the second team. Before last season he was promoted to head coach.
Schultz inhaled what the club is all about. A “flat 4-4-2 marshalling yard” doesn’t work on St. Pauli, he says, which is why he lets uncompromising express train football play. He is less about the tactical direction than about how everyone in the squad interprets their role, says Schultz. There are observers who think that in the second division no team has played football like this for a long time, so clearly, rigorously and intensely. That has had nothing to do with the frequent fight and cramp kick in the House of Commons for a long time. “Pessimism,” says Schultz, “doesn’t fit in with St. Pauli.”
Two king transfers: creative player Daniel-Kofi Kyereh and striker Guido Burgstaller (front).
(Photo: Martin Rose / Getty Images)
This is also due to the coherent composition of the squad, for which sports director Andreas Bornemann is primarily responsible. His two king transfers: Daniel-Kofi Kyereh, who came from SV Wehen Wiesbaden, is the creative force in midfield; and center forward Guido Burgstaller, who had been found unfit at Schalke. Both came on a free transfer, both are now among the leading players in their positions in the second division.
Bornemann is not guided by currents, he wants to draw a long line. Also for this reason, since this episode has long been forgotten in the Kiez, he almost stopped Schultz when things didn’t go at all in the first half of last season: Up until the winter break, St. Pauli had stumbled through the league like a drunken pirate, it was Schultz’s first months as head coach. “We then clearly analyzed what we had to do differently,” says Schultz. “And we noticed that there wasn’t that much missing.” Indeed, not much was missing, and now they may be in the process of writing a story that even utopians would not have believed in. And there are many of them on St. Pauli.
Schultz, so much East Frisian is still in him, has remained realo. When he took up the post of head coach, he says, one thing was clear to him: his time at St. Pauli now had an expiration date. On the other hand: So far nobody has landed in front of HSV.