AUDIO: The person behind the trainer: Christian Titz (2 min)
As of: November 27, 2025 3:15 p.m
The dream of returning to the Bundesliga is alive at Hannover 96. A development can be seen in the fifth-place team from Lower Saxony. The empathetic nature of coach Christian Titz plays a big part in this.
Biting cold and cloudy skies, the training lapwings had every reason to be grumpy on this uncomfortable day at the Maschsee. But they aren’t and that’s not just because of their club’s recent victory against league leaders Paderborn, but above all because of Christian Titz.
In the past 25 years, they have hardly seen a trainer here who works so meticulously and is so nice, say the 96 noble fans. It sounds trite, but Titz is a people catcher and that quickly becomes clear to everyone else, as well as the lapwings, when the 54-year-old arrives at the training site.
Karlsruhe comes to the 96 Stadium
An autograph here, a photo there, always ready for a little chat, the 96 coach gives warm attention to everyone who comes up to him – with a smile. “Actually, I only do what my parents gave me from home. That’s how I was brought up,” says Titz in the NDR interview before the home game on Friday (6.30 p.m., in the NDR Livecenter) against Karlsruher SC. It sounds obvious, but in the tough professional business it is sometimes not.
“I want to walk a common path with people and integrate as many as possible into living together. I know that, above all, I have to integrate myself.”
96 coach Christian Titz
Football nerd and communicator
On the one hand, he is a meticulous football nerd who has written books about his passion and is deeply immersed in specific areas such as neuroathletics, but on the other hand he is also an approachable communicator. This is how Titz wants to go through life and, above all, meet his professionals.
“First of all, these are people I meet who also have a lot of different thoughts,” says Titz. “It’s important to find contact and that we live well together as a group.” In the end, this approach also has an impact on performance on the pitch, the Mannheim native is convinced: “We want to play with courage and self-confidence, and be creative. It’s important that we meet each other with a certain openness and in a trusting environment.”
It doesn’t always have to be about football. 96 sports director Marcus Mann flew to Ibiza last summer to win the former HSV coach for the job in Hanover. They both sat together from the afternoon until late at night. “At some point you could of course talk about topics other than work,” Mann remembers of the pleasant evening on the Balearic island.
The son’s rheumatism disease was formative
Titz has had a few other, formative topics in his life. Your dream of a professional career is dashed early on by Lyme disease. What is more serious for the father of the family is his son’s rheumatism, which occurred a few years ago.
“It is a very insidious, incurable disease that has many facets,” explains Titz, for whom talking about it and fighting the disease has become his life’s work. “If you recognize it early, the children can be supported in such a way that the disease may stop and they can then go to school normally and get an education.”
Volunteering
The Titz family has help RheumaKinder eV found. The 96 coach is now also involved as a patron of the club, supporting those affected in all areas. “There are many families who cannot afford all the follow-up costs,” explains Titz.
Strokes of fate that make the 54-year-old humbly reflect on his privileged life as coach of a second division football team: “It is not a given that I become one of 36 professional coaches. That is why I am grateful that I was given this opportunity.”
Says coach Titz and gives a young 96 fan a little friendly help after the practice session in freezing cold Hanover so that his autograph can actually be recognized on the striped Hanover jersey. The training lapwings will probably have had their hearts warmed up.
