The times when press releases reported real news are over, even in tranquil southern Baden. That’s why it won’t surprise anyone in Freiburg when the sports club will soon announce that Julian Schuster will succeed Christian Streich as SC coach for the new season. From the moment it became clear that the club would – as so often – choose an internal solution, it was to be expected that the axed successor would be the 38-year-old.
The question that is almost more exciting is who will support the future head coach Schuster, who has never coached a team before, at the Bundesliga club. Everything indicates that an internal club solution will be announced here too. Whether it comes down to Thomas Stamm or one of Streich’s two current assistants, Florian Bruns and Lars Voßler, is speculative. Stamm has been the coach of the SC’s second team since 2021, with whom he came second in the third division in the previous season, but is currently in last place in the table.
Schuster, who, as the holder of the Pro license, has formal qualifications as a Bundesliga coach, was considered a typical prank player during his active time at the sports club (2008 to 2018). As someone who always thinks for himself and is at the same time 100% loyal. Schuster was elected captain by his teammates.
Anyone who is familiar with the countless branches of dialect coloring in southwest Germany will easily hear that the roots of the cobbler, who speaks deep High German compared to Streich, lie in Württemberg. He comes from the Bietigheim-Bissingen district, and the move to VfB Stuttgart was obvious in every respect. There, as a player whose thighs looked thinner than some forearms, he didn’t make it permanently beyond the second team.
In 2008, Robin Dutt – yes, there were other SC head coaches before Christian Streich – brought him to Freiburg. Schuster, now the father of four children, has lived there for almost 16 years. Dutt, who knew Schuster as a teenager, knew about the young professional’s intelligence and good technique, who might have achieved even more than a solid Bundesliga career if he had been a little faster. His long-time teammate Nils Petersen already attested to the player Julian Schuster’s ability to read a game tactically. Petersen once said that he himself gets excited about watching football TV evenings together and is impressed by the atmosphere, while Schuster, on the other hand, pays attention to the strategic maneuvers. “As a player, I was never fast and never strong,” Schuster himself once said: “That’s why analytics was my way to be better than others.”
Captain and coach: Schuster (l.) and Streich.
(Photo: Ulf Schiller/Beautiful Sports/Imago)
This is probably why Schuster, who (like Petersen) was one of the players the club wanted to retain permanently, was given the position of “liaison coach” in Freiburg in 2018. This was a newly created function that was intended to make the transition easier for players from the U23 and U19 who are close to the professional squad in terms of performance. Schuster also worked with the talents on deficits that head coach Streich had criticized. Keven (now VfL Bochum) and Nico Schlotterbeck (Dortmund) or the current SC goalkeeper Noah Atubolu became professionals with Schuster’s help.
It is certain that Schuster’s promotion happened with Streich’s approval. There was also a problematic moment in the intimate relationship between Streich and Schuster. In the 2017/18 season, his last season as a player, in which it was clear early on that he would retire in the summer, Schuster was on the pitch in five of the last six games – but not in the last one. Streich didn’t sub for him, even though it would have been Schuster’s farewell game, even though half his family was in the stands and even though opponents Augsburg had long since resigned themselves to defeat.
But if SC had conceded three more goals in the last few minutes, they would have ended up in the relegation zone – reason enough for the professional pessimist Streich to leave Schuster on the bench and deprive him of the lap of honor that the fans were also looking forward to. At the time, that was definitely a reason for Schuster to be mad at his mentor. But only briefly, of course. The two spoke out soon after.