Globetrotter from Hamburg
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Every now and then we take a look at players, coaches and officials in soccer countries that you don’t have so much on your note. Frank Bernhardt is currently experiencing one of the more exotic stations. The path of the former youth coach from FC St. Pauli led from Estonia, where he prepared a later St. Paulian for professional football, via Malaysia to Bangladesh. According to the 55-year-old, a “huge potential” slumbers there. However, he looks around the next country after the next coaching station.
As a native of Hamburg, Frank Bernhardt is lived in a big city, but when he first made his way to the training site of his new club Bangladesh Police FC, he was overwhelmed by the new impressions. More than 10 million people live in the capital of Dhaka, where the club is native. “Hamburg is really a small town against Dhaka,” says Bernhardt. “You will be surprised every day because there is so much to discover. You could tell hours of stories about traffic alone. For example, cars drive here that would not come through a TÜV or be pulled out by the police. For one kilometer route you need an hour an hour.”
But how do you come up with the idea of taking this step? “Actually, I wanted to become a national coach of Bangladesh,” explains Bernhardt. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. Through detours I came to the Bangladesh Police FC who were looking for a new head coach at short notice. ”
A look at the Vita Bernhardt reveals that he loves the unknown and clearly belongs to the Globetrotter and Adventur Category. He worked in a variety of countries. But the 55-year-old knows that his coaching career could have gone differently, after all he worked from 2001 to 2006 in the offspring of FC St. Pauli. But instead of ending up in one of the three German professionals as head coach, it led him to Tallinn in 2007, more precisely, to take the Estonian football association, where he took over the U19 and U21 national teams and at the same time acted as a technical director. A collaboration that was crowned by success; It took six years.
“I have now been in many exotic countries, in comparison, Estonia is comparatively boring. But at that time this step was an extremely great challenge for me. I knew nothing about the country, except that it was part of the former Soviet Union and of course not talked positively about the country accordingly. That is why I also had abdominal pain. Today I can say that it was the best decision. I got to know me incredibly warm and friendly people. Landscape and its nature enchanted and enthusiastic. “
Bernhardt remembers: “In the beginning I was the girl for everything. Especially for the age groups U15 to U21. The association was extremely open to my ideas, accordingly we introduced a U17 and a U19 league. Before that there were no young people and the results of classic games were then a 20: 1 or 19: 2.”
Bernhardt via St. Paulian Mets: Already in youth a tower
Bernhardt is particularly proud of two of his youth players from back then: “Henri Anier and Karol Mets accompanied in the youth area, which have now played 100 A international matches, which is unbelievable. The story of Karol, which it ended up to FC St. Pauli, is already a tower in the defense and it is nice to see him in Germany.”
After a short stop at the Estonian first division club Kalev Tallinn and the task as a technical director at Azerbaijan’s football association, Bernhardt led it to Malaysia in 2015. Here he first took over the national U23 before moving into different functions with the first division team Uitm United and Kelantan FC. Because of his work, Bernhardt was elected coach of the year in Malaysia in 2020. At all of the stations, the Hamburger also remembered the climatic conditions that could become extreme in both directions.
“-20 degrees Celsius was the coldest I experienced at the time. The Estonians are very cold,” says Bernhardt. “For them it was normal to train at -10 degrees. In Malaysia, the games are deliberately only played in the late evening. Of course, the games during the Ramadan were a special experience. Sometimes the players wanted to train as normal in the afternoon. The league association laid the games so that the boys were able to carry out their fasting and then at 11 p.m. Tolle the boys still great respect. “
For Bernhardt, his decision was a challenge with the question of whether he can also convey his ideas in foreign countries with other cultures and language barriers. “In general, the Asian players are very willing to learn, very inquisitive, they absolutely want to learn new things. I have learned, the easier you convey, the faster the players follow you because they understand the idea behind it. The difficulty is only to explain complicated mechanisms, but it is also the attraction to get there. Many Asian players of European players are inferior. ”
Bernhardt experienced an impressive station last year when he worked for the five -time master Yangon United for half a year in Myanmar. “Of course I know what a fantastically beautiful country Myanmar. I had the chance to drive several times. But I also knew about the political situation in Myanmar, which was omnipresent. The military was present everywhere. Nevertheless, I tried to concentrate exclusively on football. In general, you have noticed that football in the country has been more of a disordered role. The players are $ 1,500 there on average, which is a lot of money there.
Bernhardt in Bangladesch: “Associations chronically underfunded”
Now Bernhardt collects another country point in his vita with Bangladesh. Although he has only been in the South Asian country for a few months, he and his club Bangladesh Police Football Club have already done historical: “We beat Bashundhara Kings for the first time a few weeks ago after ten years. You have to say that the Kings is about the importance of FC Bayern Munich here in Bangladesh. Training units with his team. “The boys were extremely dangerous at the beginning. We have a six -meter -high fan fence behind the goal. In the first units, the balls flew over the fence in rows. A ball even shattered a wound protective disc from a car. Since then we have been training in addition to normal training.”
As a trainer who worked abroad for years, Bernhardt has learned that flexibility means everything, because the sporting conditions require spontaneity. “I have already experienced that the game days were only scheduled at short notice. Except for Bashundhara Kings, the clubs are chronically underfunded. While the Kings can afford three places and a training center that corresponds to the European standards, many clubs have bad conditions. The training sites are of the same in many places with two goals. A great advantage is, of course, that all clubs are located in Dhaka or play here, So that the players do not earn more than $ 1,000 per month due to the financial problems.
Overall, football in Bangladesh is still at the very beginning. This can be seen, among other things, in the number of participation in the Asia Cup. The last participation dates from 1980. With its population of more than 170 million, Bangladesh offers a “huge potential,” says Bernhardt. “Here you can find an unbelievable number of talents, but the talents remain talent. They fall by the wayside, there is no sustainable structures, and let alone professional talent promotion. The children and young people only play football on the street. I am absolutely convinced of that. “
TM up close
The HAMZA Choudhury personnel shows which hype can arise from football. The midfielder of Sheffield United recently played his first international match and brought thousands of people to the stadium. “Cricket is Volksport number one, but football is increasingly coming up. This is also evident on the number of audience numbers. The games are regularly sold out and people love their national team. Hamza is an absolute gain for the Bengal Tigers and football in general. Everywhere he and the national team report. It is said that the association tries to recruit other European players with roots in Bangladesh.
Bernhardt himself is looking for the next station. “My contract in Bangladesh expires and accordingly I will plunge into a new adventure. I recently received an offer from the Maldives. However, I would have only received a small salary there, but I could live in a 5-star resort. Of course I would also look forward to returning to Germany if an interesting project results. I see it as a privilege and great chance to be happy with football. I on the next country by being a guest. “
By Henrik Stadnischenko