On Saturday, Bo Henriksen was still on the sidelines at the Zurich derby. But the city duel was his last in Switzerland. He’s going to Germany.
Mainz 05 has presented its new head coach. The Bundesliga club has presented Danish coach Bo Henriksen as the successor to Jan Siewert. Henriksen comes from Swiss first division club FC Zurich. On Saturday, the Dane and his team won the city derby against Grashopper Club Zurich 1-0.
Mainz 05 is in a deep crisis, is in 17th place in the Bundesliga and is four points behind the relegation place. The self-proclaimed carnival club has only been able to celebrate one win in 21 Bundesliga games. After Bo Svensson and Jan Siewert, who was on leave after Saturday’s 3-1 defeat in Stuttgart, Henriksen is the third head coach of Mainz this season.
Emotional and opinionated
Sports director Christian Heidel explained in the statement from Mainz as follows: “We have looked intensively at our current situation and analyzed which type of coach with which footballing approach suits us in this difficult sporting situation. This led us to Bo Henriksen, a coach , who has succeeded repeatedly in his career and under very different conditions in forming teams and playing football that is equally pragmatic, but also courageous and ultimately successful.”
With his emotional and opinionated nature, Henriksen will “fit in very well with Mainz 05”. The Dane is scheduled to be introduced this Tuesday. Henriksen was already under discussion as a coach at 1. FC Köln in the winter, but the billy goats decided on Timo Schultz.
With FC Zurich, Henriksen was third in the Swiss Super League. However, the former champion was in a bit of a results crisis before the derby win on Saturday. Zurich had not been able to win seven games in a row. This is probably why Henriksen announced last week that he would not be extending his contract, which expires in the summer. Now there was even an early farewell.
The 49-year-old doesn’t have much time until the first game. On Saturday Mainz 05 welcomes FC Augsburg. Henriksen then meets a fellow countryman, as Augsburg’s Jess Thorup is also Danish.