In many families, the pre-Christmas period is stressful, after all, the celebration has to be prepared amidst all the professional excitement at the end of the year. At Sandro Wagner, the last few days before Christmas Eve are also fully scheduled, with four children in the house it’s going well anyway – and then there was Qatar. Ironically, in the hot phase of Advent, the father was away again and again, at the World Cup, as an expert for ZDF.
Now he’s back, has freed up half an hour for a phone call and takes stock of his experiences in the Persian Gulf: “A lot of things stick in our minds from this World Cup, both in terms of sport and general impressions.” But he also talks about everything that affects his other job, that as coach of the regional league leader Spielvereinigung Unterhaching – and that stands above everything, Wagner emphasizes at every opportunity: “I’m the coach of the Spielvereinigung, everything else always comes afterwards. “
There had recently been a debate about how the former national player could even reconcile his two jobs. It was also about the cancellation of the last game of this calendar year against Wacker Burghausen, because Wagner was already in Qatar at the time. Haching President Manfred Schwabl makes it clear that there is nothing wrong with this game failure: “And we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously as a regional league.”
Wagner emphasizes that he “never missed an important training session, let alone a game” through his job as a television expert. Even during the World Cup he flew home in between. And if he’s at a Champions League game for the streaming broadcaster Dazn, he takes the first machine the next day, “and I’m back on the training ground at 11 a.m. The boys don’t even notice it.”
“The ascent cannot be planned, if only because of the relegation at the end of the season.”
Even if he often talks on television about how his beak has grown, and even if his appearances as a trainer are characterized by a nonchalance that is rare in this industry, Sandro Wagner takes the things he does very seriously. And so he doesn’t want to be blinded by the currently good interim results in Unterhaching. Championship and promotion are not the defined goal this season, he clarifies, it is more about “improving the quality of the boys”. After all, an ascent cannot be planned, “if only because of the relegation at the end of the season”.
After 23 matchdays and only two defeats, SpVgg Unterhaching is in first place with 57 points, followed by Würzburg (54). In the event of the title in the league, Haching would have to play against the champions of the Regionalliga Nordost for a ticket to the third division – Energie Cottbus and Rot-Weiss Erfurt are currently ahead there. This relegation could be very bitter, for example with an early red card in the first game, “or if you had ten corona cases the week before,” says Wagner. “That absolutely needs to be changed, the master simply has to rise straight up.”
The 35-year-old is still fully immersed in his job at the Munich suburban club. He is satisfied with what has been achieved so far, after all, when he took office a year and a half ago, he found “a heap of rubble in terms of sport and team structure”, with a “team wedged together, as is usual after relegation”. Wagner unraveled the individual parts, created a better atmosphere within the squad with team building and a lot of communication. And I made compromises myself: “A scheme X, how I actually want to play, cannot be implemented one hundred percent with the types of players I have. So I have to adapt as a coach. It’s about a kind of symbiosis with the existing squad to form,” he says.
He is completely convinced of the club (“a great club that has gained recognition and sustainability through Manni Schwabl”), the task is also perfect for developing as a young coach, and his second mainstay as a television expert can be combined well with it . Nevertheless, the native of Munich does not want to get involved in an extension of his contract, which expires in the summer. “There’s no trend, I’ll discuss it with my family and with Haching. But it’s also clear that my involvement in Haching is a win-win situation for everyone, which I won’t just give up.” In addition, he could obtain his missing coaching licenses at the same time.
In any case, President Schwabl is convinced of his managerial staff. He is “capable of criticism”. “He listens, that’s a great asset in this business.” In addition, there is Wagner’s effect on young players: “The probability that one of our talents wants to leave is rather low.” On the contrary: “We get a lot of requests from players who want to train under Sandro.” Wagner is a very good representative for the club, “I only hear positive things about his work as a commentator,” says Schwabl. Even an unsuccessful joke, as can happen in a live report, only flies in his face for a short time – if at all.
Wagner’s World Cup insight: winners Argentina “showed the most heart”
Like all experiences he has in football, Wagner also considers the World Cup to be extremely important for his development. After all, he wants to be a coach “one thousand percent”, his goal is the Bundesliga and not television. His sporting insights from Qatar: “As with the EM 2021 and the Champions League last season, it wasn’t necessarily the most talented team that won, but the one that showed the most heart.” And if you have a “clear direction” in addition to quality, like the Argentines this time or the Italians or Real Madrid at club level then, “then you win”.
Wagner also has a clear opinion on the German appearance in Qatar: “I see it like Emmanuel Macron, who says that footballers should concentrate on football.” This World Cup was of great importance for the Arab world, for that reason alone it should have been more respected by the German side, despite all the things that are “of course open to criticism”. All of that was rightly no longer an issue at the final last Sunday. “And this game showed once again: football is great.”