Since one has the snout full! After only three games of the season, cult coach Ernst Middendorp threw the ball at third-division relegated SV Meppen. The 64-year-old announced this on Wednesday evening after the 2-1 defeat at SSV Jeddeloh II in the Regionalliga Nord.
Middendorp is simply fed up. “I told the team that I’m not cut out to make amateurs work. Basically, we don’t manage to act professionally. It’s not my world. I don’t work 15 hours a day to end up doing anything to animate. I’m not an animator,” he told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.
Middendorp coached Arminia Bielefeld three times in his career and led the DSC from the regional league to the Bundesliga in the 1990s. Arminen named Middendorp their “Coach of the Century” in 2005. Reason: “At the end of the 80s he built a completely new, identity-forming team out of nothing and led Arminia from the regional league to the Bundesliga in his second term. Brilliant motivator, but not in possession of a diplomatic passport.”
Middendorp’s world tour ultimately led him to Meppen
However, Middendorp also became a globetrotter with a perfectly normal passport. After stints in Iran, Ghana, South Africa, China, Essen and Thailand, among others, he took over SV Meppen in March, but was unable to prevent relegation from the 3rd division despite a strong final spurt.
In the table of the Regionalliga Nord, Meppen ranks tenth after the third matchday with only three points and lost the last two games. Not enough for the ambitious Middendorp, who doesn’t want to be grilled in the regional league. After all, he once said to a local reporter: “Kneel down, you bratwurst.”