If one relies solely on the clichés that circulate about Felix Magath, it is legitimate to say that there is hardly a setting that would do him better than the home of Hertha BSC. Magath, 68, was introduced as the new Hertha coach on Monday, and this is at home where a comparatively harsh tone must have prevailed between 1952 and 1990: on the site of the British Army headquarters on Berlin grounds. That fits because according to tradition, the training grounds at Felix Magath mostly mutated into parade grounds.
Magath. Felix Magath. There were Hertha fans who went to bed with the news on Sunday evening and checked their cell phones on Monday morning to see if they had really just dreamed it all. Only: it was true. The man who teabagged, who in earlier places of activity liked to be alone and manu militari ruled, should save Hertha from relegation. “The last dictator in Europe,” ex-pro Bachirou Salou once called him after surviving a Magath rule at Eintracht Frankfurt. A sentence that he might not say in the light of the sad present.
Still, the image has endured, and Magath is obviously old enough that it no longer bothers him. Fredi Bobic, the Hertha manager, certainly not. “We need a coach who demands discipline and who is known to have a clear and firm hand when dealing with the players,” said Bobic. “Discipline is part of sport, I can’t change that. I didn’t invent it,” said Magath, who apparently caused happy faces at least in his Munich domicile: “My wife and children pushed me to go to Berlin walk.”
It remains a mystery how the Hertha players reacted when they heard about Magath’s commitment
The fact that he actually has a lot to offer as a coach speaks for Magath. He won two championships with FC Bayern and one championship with VfL Wolfsburg; In addition, he “succeeded in the Bundesliga with six or seven teams” in securing his place in the Bundesliga. “That’s why I see the task at Hertha as something that is tailored to me,” said Magath.
That might be true. And it caused divided reactions in the part of the capital that was inclined towards Hertha. Quite a few remembered the days from 2012 when another old master was hired by Hertha as a supposed savior and failed: Otto Rehhagel, then over 70 years old, older than Magath today. “Hegel remarked somewhere that all great facts and persons in world history happen twice, so to speak. He forgot to add: the first time as a tragedy, the other time as a farce,” Karl Marx once said.
In 1984, Felix Magath (left) no longer seems to be convinced of Ernst Happel’s directives. The heyday of HSV was drawing to a close, there was a crisis in the team, and two years later Magath, who had won the European Cup in 1983, ended his professional career.
(Photo: Sven Simon/Imago)
On the other hand, there are people from Hertha who think the only way to reach safety is through authoritarianism. What do you get? A very confident coach. “Those who don’t believe that I’m the right choice shouldn’t just criticize, but make their own suggestion as to who should be able to solve this difficult task in the German Bundesliga,” said Magath – and earned silence in the press room when he added: “I would like to ask for comments.”
It remained a mystery how the Hertha players reacted when they heard about the Magath commitment. He said to the players: “Look at your cell phones. You always do it anyway,” Bobic said of his instructions to the professionals after he had informed them on Sunday morning that Tayfun Korkut had been dismissed as a coach.
Only one player in the Hertha squad knows Magath firsthand: Peter Pekarik
Even the youngest Hertha professionals should know a few horror stories about Magath; the quote collections are full of relevant statements about the real or supposed harsh regime that Magath leads. “Lake Michigan is so big, it’s an obvious training option,” he once said on the sidelines of a US trip with FC Bayern in the USA – the lake is twice the size of the state of Brandenburg. Peruvian striker Jefferson Farfán only stayed at Schalke because Magath was gone at some point: “I would rather have hauled stones and dug up earth in Peru than played under Mr. Magath.” The reason? “Those who train under Magath look forward to dying,” ex-manager Rainer Calmund once reported.
Only one player in today’s Hertha squad knows Magath firsthand: right-back Peter Pekarik left Wolfsburg for Berlin in August 2012. “I think that one or the other player has asked him how nice things are going to be in the next few days,” said Magath. After all, he doesn’t have to have a hill heaped up like he once did in Wolfsburg (keyword: “Mount Magath”). Hertha has a so-called sprint hill on the site, which is great for chasing players up – including young players who obviously need to be reminded that being a professional footballer involves work. Only: whether he finds the right connection to the young people? Whether Magath updated is?
Bobic has no doubts about that. Magath was “never away from the window”, despite his almost ten-year absence from Bundesliga business; The last time he coached a team was almost five years ago – in China. “I can’t imagine that that’s essential to my work,” said Magath, adding that one could “further develop in England or China, too,” “that just broadens the horizon.”
At Fulham FC, for example, where he had to go bottom of the table in 2014, he met a Scottish professional named Mark Fotheringham, who is now to assist him as an assistant coach and who – at the age of 38 – is closer to the current generation of players than he is Fotheringham worked as an assistant at Karlsruher SC and FC Ingolstadt, he speaks perfect German, emphasized Magath, before joking about his employee’s Scottish accent: “At most, it could be problematic with English.” If this becomes the biggest problem in the coming weeks, Hertha would be greatly helped.