From 2004 to 2007, Felix Magath was a coach at Bundesliga soccer team FC Bayern. The 69-year-old looked back on his time on Säbener Straße – and left no good hair on the German record champions.
In the “Transfermarkt” podcast “Done Deals”, Magath emphasized that he didn’t fit in with FC Bayern because Bayern Munich didn’t follow his philosophy of developing young players.
Magath knew from the start that he would have little say in transfers alongside the two alphas Uli Hoeneß and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
But “I would have hoped or believed that if I was successful, I would be able to gain more influence. But I was wrong about that.”
The two-time Munich double winner also identified an ongoing problem at Bayern: “That at Bayern the players could always walk past the coach to the board and then talk to the coach.”
“If that’s the situation, I’m telling you, then basically no coach has a chance,” judged Magath and continued: “Ask Ancelotti, ask van Gaal. There were other coaches there, who are more internationally recognized than I am. And yet they weren’t there that long either.”
Magath on Schalke debts: “It wasn’t anyone”
In the podcast, Magath also commented on his coaching position at FC Schalke 04 between 2009 and 2011. “I wasn’t just a coach, I was also a manager. Of course I tried to cover the costs of a Bundesliga ninth, where FC Schalke was before me came to shut down, because FC Schalke had paid like a Champions League participant,” the 1980 European champion recalled.
At the time, Magath had sole power to act in the Royal Blues. “Because the club was in such a bad position that nobody said anything or wanted to take responsibility. They all withdrew, they all ducked away and nobody was responsible for the 35 million misery,” said the former midfielder: “And that’s why I didn’t have any headwind in the first six months, because nobody dared to decide anything.”
In March 2011, however, Magath and FC Schalke 04 went their separate ways.