Marie-Louise Eta could hardly believe her luck at the end of last year when the former Bundesliga player found the acceptance for the highest coaching license in her electronic mailbox. After a theoretical and practical assessment procedure at the Hennef sports school, the full-time junior trainer (U15) from the DFB belongs to the elite group who have been completing the pro license trainer course since the end of February.
The only woman among 16 participants is impressed by the colleagues and the content that has already been conveyed in the first modules of the 13-month course. At Eintracht Frankfurt, expert talks were possible with head coach Oliver Glasner and sports director Markus Krösche, at 1. FC Köln a conversation with cult figure Steffen Baumgart, at SC Freiburg with leading figure Christian Streich. It goes without saying that such encounters shape a prospective trainer.
Fewer participants, more quality
“All expectations of the course and the training have been met, if not exceeded”, said the 30-year-old in an interview with the specialist magazine “Kicker”. Daniel Niedzkowski, Head of Pro License Training, is of course happy to hear something like that. “With fewer participants per trainer in the new training formats, we can achieve a completely different level of quality”says the 45-year-old, who in 2018 took over the training as a football coach previously led by Frank Wormuth.
In the meantime, the association has reformed its coach training, which will soon be largely held in Frankfurt after the move to the DFB campus. Regardless of the fact that with Jürgen Klopp (FC Liverpool), Thomas Tuchel (FC Chelsea) and Ralf Rangnick (Manchester United) three German coaches are working in the Premiere League this season, German football must continue to develop here in order to be internationally competitive, Niedzkowski explains to Sportschau: “There’s no reason not to train more good coaches.” But ask for new guardrails that correspond to the greatly changed requirements.
Academy director Tobias Haupt has turned every stone
Tobias Haupt, head of the DFB academy, repeatedly emphasized that there was no alternative to turning every stone individually at this point. main promised: “By the end of 2021, no training content and no license level will be the same as it was two and a half years ago.”
But what exactly has changed? First of all, two strands are structurally separated from each other: Since then, every candidate can decide whether he wants to pursue a coaching career with youngsters or with adults. Haupt has found that of the trained football teachers, only a maximum of half ended up in the professional adult sector – the other half went to the youth academies or to the bases.
Danny Röhl, Hansi Flick’s right hand, also goes to school
At the top is still the pro license training, which also spits out the trainers for the three professional leagues. The association makes no secret of the fact that with the restriction to 16 instead of 24 participants with the last significantly more than 100 applicants per year, the bottleneck has become a bit narrower than before, but the DFB still trains significantly more professional trainers than they do UEFA actually envisages – a course with 20 participants is approved there every two years.
The privilege of deserving national players bagging their license in a hurry has long since been abolished. Danny Röhl, the right hand of national coach Hansi Flick, is currently at school. Incidentally, the highest trainer license costs 19,000 euros plus accommodation. A nice amount of money, which is often taken over by the employers (clubs or associations).
There are widespread criticisms
The A license follows under the Pro license – and here the access is actually much more difficult, the courses have become more expensive and last longer. Every six months there are only 24 places with the A license. Cost 6000 euros plus meals. And instead of just under three weeks, everything now takes almost eight months. Those who are now left out or who cannot afford the costs express a lack of understanding.
A growing gap between trainers of professionals and amateurs, limited opportunities for further training and sometimes a lack of transparency in the selection of candidates are criticized. The association counters the critics: A significant shortage and increase in costs is the logical consequence if the individual support, the training periods and the knowledge imparted are increased – after all, the DFB does not have unlimited trainers at its disposal. In addition, the selection procedures abroad are for the most part no less restrictive.
Chief trainer Daniel Niedzkowski sees a misunderstanding
In addition, the presence time has not increased significantly with the A license, since the participants only have to be on site for three days every four weeks. The rest is done in the preliminary and application phases in the clubs. This is to ensure that the trainers can continue to do their job alongside their training and benefit from the application of the new knowledge, at best as an assistant trainer in the professional leagues, in the regional league or women’s league or not much lower.
For Niedzkowski, there is understandable displeasure here (“we knew very well that we would not only get applause for the reforms”) the fundamental misunderstanding. Previously there were too many A license holders, around 250 a year, “quasi with the watering can” educated. For a long time, quantity was inevitably at the expense of quality.
However, the importance of the A license training is so high that training here must be much more intensive and detailed than in the past. After all, the license allows you to do any coaching job in German football with the exception of the head coaching position in the top three leagues.