World Cup: Julian Nagelsmann once insulted by fellow coaches

Attack on today’s national coach

When Nagelsmann was insulted by a fellow trainer

Julian Nagelsmann has already experienced a lot in his coaching life. In his first years in the Bundesliga, he was verbally attacked violently by a colleague.

The competition between Bundesliga coaches is fierce, the pressure is immense – and can then be released on the sidelines. Such a clash occurred in 2016 between current national coach Julian Nagelsmann (then Hoffenheim coach) and Roger Schmidt, then in the employ of Bayer Leverkusen.

Schmidt verbally attacked Nagelsmann violently. “It was nothing at all! What kind of crazy are you?” Schmidt shouted at Nagelsmann after a contentious scene shortly after half-time: “Just shut up.” The Sky microphones captured this. Roger Schmidt later apologized, Nagelsmann accepted.

Did it have something to do with the rise of Nagelsmann and Hoffenheim into real competitors for Europe’s places in the Bundesliga? For ex-scorer Nils Petersen, it makes sense.

“I think that the Christian Streich generation had a problem with the fact that such a young coach is now so successful. Because of course you think: ‘Hey, I’ve been doing this for 30 years now. It can’t be that a jumping jack comes along here at 28 and now tactically wins the game against me. That does something to you,’ explains Petersen in the t-online podcast “Julian Nagelsmann – The Youngest One”.

You can also listen to the podcast at Spotify, Apple Music, RTL+ and everyone common podcast platforms hear.

The ex-national player also explains: “That’s why I think he earned this envy very early on, because of his success, because of how he carried himself, but of course also because of his tactical variability.” Nagelsmann was “the figurehead” when one thought of “tactical variability” in the Bundesliga. “Older coaches might not want to believe that,” Petersen speculates.

By the way: Roger Schmidt was a repeat offender back then. After a scandal in the 1-0 loss to Borussia Dortmund in February 2016, he was sentenced to three games and two more were suspended until June 30, 2017. At that time, Schmidt refused to leave the interior after being reprimanded, and the game was then interrupted for a few minutes.