Was “World Cup winner”
© Imago
The former “World Cup winner” Simon Henzler has been a goalkeeper coach for over 14 years. He spent most of his training at FC Schalke 04 and worked with Ralf Fährmann and Alexander Nübel, among other things. At the transfer market, he gives an insight into his work, remembers the sensational underdog victory with FC St. Pauli 2002 against big FC Bayern and how Schalke and Fährmann impressed him.
For Henzler, the task as a goalkeeper coach is not a profession, but a passion. This is what the former Bundesliga goalkeeper realizes right at the beginning of our conversation. “The goalkeeper has been with me since childhood. Being able to play as a goalkeeper has filled me with great pleasure as to work as a goalkeeper coach.”
With FC St. Pauli, Henzler played in the Bundesliga in 2001/02.
Henzler owes the fact that he can work as a goalkeeper trainer today of the inspiration of three people: “Klaus Thomforde shaped me in terms of mentality and attitude, above all the focus on the right focus,” he says of the former St. Pauli icon. Henzler adds: “Thomas Schlieck inspired me with his innovative training control. I was able to learn a lot from Volker Ippig, especially in the interpersonal area.”
Henzler over Ippig, Kahn, Globuli and dirty balls
Laughing, Henzler has to immediately think of a special situation with the former Hafenstraße-Brewer Ippig, known as the bird of paradise, who also shaped the new, now alternative FC St. Pauli next to the square in 1980s. When Henzler met Ippig, the former goalkeeper was already a goalkeeper coach, but not only that, “but also a naturopath. I remember that he treated me with a swollen foot with different needles and arnica injections, there was also globuli. And in fact it worked and I was able to stand on the pitch a few days later.”
A highlight of his active career was the 2-1 win with St. Pauli against FC Bayern Munich in the 2001/02 season. “The title of World Cup winners, although not a real title, I still have proud. We were the absolute underdog at the time. There were fans who even had worries that we could lose in two digits. But maybe Bayern also played the slight arrogance of Bayern. Seen.
For the big breakthrough in professional football, it was not enough for Henzler with the then highly surprising trip to the Bundesliga. So he can also put himself into the goalkeeper that cannot be trained. “The fact that I no longer played games is also due to the fact that I lacked the elbow and that harmony was always important to me,” recalls Henzler. “My best friends in the respective teams were often my competitors. Which was not a matter of course at the time because competition was very important at the time and did not value a functioning goalkeeper team today.”
Henzler: At Schalke “for the first time experienced what radiance means”
Today, in the service of the DFB, Henzler is one of the most renowned goalkeeper coaches in Germany. Especially with his work at FC Schalke, he made a name for himself in the industry. In 2015, under the then new head coach André Breitenreiter, he switched to the tight ones, who at that time were still one of the sporting greats in the Bundesliga and regularly participated in the international business.
“We switched from Paderborn to Schalke at the time and that was a change between day and night. In Paderborn we trained in an urban training center, moved in the caretaker’s apartment and were afraid that the balls could damage the nearby cars. For the first time, I experienced what the word radiance means for the first time. Not an ordinary club is the best fans that we have in Germany.
Henzler also met Ralf Fährmann for the first time. A collaboration that should be successful. Under his new goalkeeper coach, Fährmann is developing into one of the strongest keepers in the Bundesliga. “Ralf impressed me right from the start. If a 1.97 m hunters come up with you, which brings the corresponding physique with you. What impressed me even more about him was the mentality he had. He was totally ambitious. He trained in every training session. Top 3 goalkeepers in Germany.
One thing that Henzler is particularly impressed by Fährmann: “We always talk in connection with goalkeepers about technical, football or tactical skills. For me, however, I have learned the mental strength. In the past few years, not every player fits every club. Schalke is a special club, he is a curse and blessing at the same time. If you have the mental strength. Not if you are the best footballer in training.
Henzler and Fährmann 2023 at FC Schalke
Henzler recommended Schalke Nübel – because of a transfer “also a little abdominal pain”
Henzler worked not only with ferryman, but also with the talent Alexander Nübel, which was previously unknown, and prepared him for the shark basin Bundesliga. “I got to know Alex in Paderborn. At that time he ran completely under the radar, no professional association had him on the umbrella. After just a few training sessions, I knew that the boy had what it takes to be professional. He not only brought the purely goalkeeper components with him, but also the soccer elements. I remember a training game that Alex played in the field. Four goals for his team. “
So it happened that Henzler conveyed the young Nübel to S04. “When I switched to Schalke at the time, Horst Heldt asked me if I knew a talented goalkeeper. At the time of the time Florian Müller from Mainz had an eye on me. I then put the person responsible at the heart. In fact, I also had some abdominal pain because Alex was loosely used for 600,000 euros from Paderborn and I actually felt that as a lot of money for a young goalkeeper. For example, he had problems with the stroke of his scoring in his early days.
“The goalkeeper coach is now a technician, tactician, athletic coach, analyst, mentor …”
But what does the current area of responsibility of a goalkeeper coach look like? “As an outsider, one thinks wrongly, the goalkeeper gets the ball on the goal for an hour and a half and then it was for the day. The tasks have become much more diverse and specific over the past few years,” explains Henzler. “Technical, tactical, physical elements are also trained. In addition, mental and communicative work, analysis, video work and individualization are also available. In short, the goalkeeper coach is technicians, tactics, athletics coach, analyst, mentor and an integral part of the coaching team.
While many head coaches deliberately build a distance from their players, it is completely the opposite for the goalkeeper trainer. Henzler says. It is important for him to build a close relationship of trust. He also sees himself as an important trust and caregiver. “As a goalkeeper, you have to come into your head and you can only do that through trust and empathy. Everything is relaxed.
Henzler has been working as a goalkeeper coach for 14 years now and was able to experience up close how football and especially the requirements for the goalkeeper have changed. “First of all, the goalkeeper has a task, and this is preventing goals. But the game has changed, the position is the most complex in the game. You have to be a goalkeeper now. You have to be the first offensive player, as well as the last defense player you have to be able to intervene immediately. In my view, the physical is not the most strenuous. requires a lot of mental force. “
“The thoughts after a goal can crush you”
The fact that the goalkeeper is exposed to a special printing situation is of course due to the fact that a goal of a goalkeeper very often leads to a goal. But how do you create a strategy for dealing with mistakes, so that young goalkeepers in particular consider a mistake as a chance of learning instead of condemning themselves?
“I advise every young talent to work with a mental coach or sports psychologist,” says Henzler. “The thoughts for a goal can crush you and prevent you from calling up your services. It is about developing strategies that bring you back to the present because you quickly tend to question everything and stay in the past. If I accept the goal, I can also let it go. Pressure. Get enough time to be able to distinguish you. “
Henzler sees the frequent statement in football games, “that was a goalkeeper error”. “I use the word mistake very rarely, I rather speak of participation. One can speak of a mistake if the goalkeeper was 100 percent fault. But how often is the goalkeeper to blame for a goal? The counter goal is usually already arising in a completely different point. I noticed that the reporting has become very borderline in the meantime. ‘Errors’ explained.
In this respect, Henzler would like “that a former goalkeeper is more likely to sit in these experts. Firstly, a keeper can put himself in the situation much more intensively. On the other hand, a goalkeeper would never say immediately, but that was a goalkeeper error, but the supposed error from various perspectives-and you don’t even get it as soon as possible in a TV studio.”
Interview by Henrik Stadderko