DFB Cup
Social media affinity? Has Funkel “zero point zero”
Coach Friedhelm Funkel wants to win the DFB Cup with 1. FC Kaiserslautern. photo
© Uwe Anspach/dpa
When Funkel looks at his tattooed football professionals, he asks: “Do you actually know what you’ll look like when you’re older?” On Saturday, football Germany will be looking at the oldie coach.
At the photo session in the Fritz Walter Stadium, he is shy Friedhelm Funkel doesn’t want to stand in front of a giant graffiti with the cup history of 1. FC Kaiserslautern. “Cup winner” is written there, spray-painted in white.
Will he be able to hold the trophy in his hands again on Saturday at the age of 70? Seldom has a team gone into the final in Berlin as such a clear underdog. “In a game – I know this from my highly esteemed colleague Otto Rehhagel – anything is possible. No matter how unlikely it may seem beforehand,” says the coach of the second division football team ahead of the challenge against German champions Bayer Leverkusen in the Olympic Stadium (kick-off 8 p.m./ARD and Sky).
Funkel’s composure is of course due to his age and experience. “It’s not like I’m talking about anything that I haven’t already experienced myself,” he explains in an interview with dpa. A sentence that could be applied like a template to any of his statements. With the oldie coach, the floundering FCK was able to avoid falling into the 3rd league; Almost 50,000 fans celebrated Funkel on the last match day on the Betzenberg.
Outsiders FCK against Leverkusen: “We need a miracle”
Now the Neuss native is going to a DFB Cup final as head coach for the third time, but has only won it once as a player: in 1985 with Bayer 05 Uerdingen. “If it was a huge surprise and sensation back then, then we need a miracle now,” says Funkel. His team defeated FC Bayern Munich 2-1. Legend has it that the Uerdingen supporters chanted the famous “Berlin, Berlin, we’re going to Berlin!” invented with the finals.
That was almost 40 years ago and Funkel is still in the football business. More precisely: again. He had already declared his coaching career over in 2020 when Fortuna Düsseldorf separated from him. In 2021 he saved 1. FC Köln from relegation to the Bundesliga. His mission in Kaiserslautern is over after the cup final, so the big stage is a farewell. If it is one. “Age is no reason to stop. I do it because I enjoy it,” says the tireless veteran trainer. “The basic requirement is: I have to feel healthy. If it stays that way – then I don’t rule out continuing. Wherever.”
Football for Funkel like a drug?
FCK is his 13th stop on the bench. “Football is my life – without neglecting other things.” Funkel denies that he just can’t let go. “During the time when I wasn’t doing anything, I did miss the football industry a little,” he admits, but emphasizes: “I didn’t go to football stadiums that often because I was on vacation a lot – and I enjoyed that.”
And yet a statement made by star coach Jürgen Klopp when he left Liverpool FC is also applicable to Funkel: This professional football is obviously a “drug because everyone comes back and everyone works until they are 70”. Or even older – like Lautern’s former mastermind Rehhagel, who joined Hertha BSC in 2012 at the age of 73.
In Berlin, Funkel’s wife Anja, his two adult daughters with their husbands and his four grandchildren – between eight and three years old – will also be sitting in the stands. “It’s an indescribable feeling of happiness, I never expected that in my life,” says Funkel about reaching the final. The fact that his players are two generations younger doesn’t bother him. The fact that they wear brightly colored shoes, show rehearsed goal celebrations, turn up the music in the dressing room until he escapes – “that’s no longer necessarily my world and something I can identify with.” But he accepts that.
Cell phone, but no laptop
“There are a lot of guys who are tattooed from head to toe. I just ask myself: do you actually know what you’ll look like when you’re older?” says Funkel. He really appreciates the many options available these days in a coaching team with assistants and analysts. “In the past, you needed three days of preparation time to do a video analysis: you had VHS tapes and two cassette recorders. You constantly pressed stop. And record again. And stop again. Nowadays, it can be done in a matter of seconds.”
His coaching team uses the new techniques. “I’m watching,” he says and adds: “I don’t like the term laptop trainer either.” How is your social media affinity, Mr. Funkel? “Zero point zero,” the 70-year-old replies unmoved and taps his cell phone in his trouser pocket. “I notice when it rings. I have WhatsApp, email and SMS. That’s what I do, I’m good at that too.”
He doesn’t own a laptop. “I can handle it a little bit, but the others do it all much faster,” explains Funkel. “But something else is also extremely important: humanity, communication, which is completely lost today not only in football but in many areas. That annoys me.”