There was great excitement in Bremen when the existence of a so-called “Kohfeldt clause” became public in the summer. The excitement was justified, because the clause also had something to do with the traditional club Werder Bremen, where Florian Kohfeldt worked as a coach for a while. The clause was discussed extensively in Internet forums dealing with SV Werder, and the Bremen office also dealt with it.
Before you get the wrong impression: No, nobody in Bremen has planned to bring Kohfeldt back as a coach, they are still very satisfied with the current coach Ole Werner. Interestingly, for those responsible at SV Werder, the clause was a reason to ask whether a return of attacker Max Kruse would make sporting sense – and if so: how should you actually pay for it?
The “Kohfeldt clause” is written in the small print of the employment contract between Max Kruse and VfL Wolfsburg, and it can be said that from the player’s point of view it was an excellent idea. Because even if your name is Max Kruse, you have to dare to demand such a special agreement. And then you have to suppress your grin during the negotiations when those responsible for the losing club really put their signature under a contract clause that has the following content: Kruse, who moved from Union Berlin to Wolfsburg last January, was assured that he is allowed to leave the club for a fee if Kohfeldt, who was highly valued from the old Bremen days, is no longer a VfL coach in the new season.
Kruse should have left the club – for a price that only a few can afford apart from VfL Wolfsburg
A case that is known to have occurred: Kruse, 34, was publicly sorted out by the new Wolfsburg coach Niko Kovac on Saturday, although he had recently made an effort to get the highly talented soloist into his game system, which is based on a collective spirit, despite the obvious bulge in his stomach under the jersey to involve But Kruse, who says of himself that he is “not a world champion in training”, prefers to brag about his “four-hour workday” in the media and started a YouTube channel on which he and his girlfriend share a bit of trash TV content sends to the world. Kruse did make a contribution to keeping Wolfsburg in the league last season – but only because Kohfeldt was in office.
What connects all these lines to form a pattern: no one apart from the Werkself, which is cross-subsidized by a car company, could and wanted to afford someone like Kruse, which not only has to do with his top salary of 3.8 million euros, but with the Collateral damage entailed in maintaining the attacker. Kruse is thus an example of the architecture of the league, in which some clubs buy a few luxury goods that they can leave unused in the stands, while the rest depend on establishing a wage structure in line with the market in the company.
“We discussed it internally,” admitted Bremer’s technical director, Clemens Fritz, in the summer when he was asked about the so-called “Kohfeldt clause”: “But we simply couldn’t manage it financially.” With Kruse’s suspension, the contract has gained new meaning anyway: Kruse can do what he wants, and the Wolfsburg will pay him because they can.