This choice of coach not only surprises the football scene: Hertha BSC relies on the almost forgotten old champion Felix Magath in the relegation battle. That’s how his commitment came about.
Felix Magath first caused a system crash. The Hertha BSC website collapsed for a few minutes on Sunday evening. Overwork may have been one reason, as this news sparked curiosity and astonishment. The master trainer of FC Bayern Munich and VfL Wolfsburg, once honored as “Quälix” and “Schleifer”, is supposed to save the Berlin problem club from falling into second division after a long absence from the Bundesliga. He proved his reputation as a savior in need at the beginning of the millennium with Eintracht Frankfurt and VfB Stuttgart.
“Felix Magath’s CV speaks for itself. He has proven many times that with his experience in any sporting situation he can make the right adjustments to lead us out of our sportingly challenging situation,” said Hertha’s managing director Fredi Bobic on Sunday evening.
Long out of the Bundesliga
Magath has not been active in the Bundesliga for ten years since the end of his second Wolfsburg engagement in 2012. With the Berlin super chaos at Hertha BSC, the 68-year-old, who many thought had retired, will now have a lot to do. His mission is limited to the eight games until the end of the season. “I had very clear talks with Fredi Bobic. We are aware of the sporting situation. I’m ready to use all my experience to help them stay up in the league. What’s important now is for everyone to focus fully on the remaining games,” said Magath .
In England, Magath had no success after leaving Germany as manager of FC Fulham in 2014. Only a brief engagement in China followed. Most recently he worked for the company Flyeralarm as a consultant for the Würzburg Kickers and the Austrian club Admira Wacker Mödling.
Premiere against Hoffenheim
Magath is to be introduced as a coach at a press conference in Berlin on Monday at 1 p.m. The first game on the Hertha bench is the game on Saturday in the Olympic Stadium against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.
The news on late Sunday evening rounded off grueling hours in Berlin. Fredi Bobic had no other choice. In the sunshine, the managing director of Hertha BSC pulled up in front of the red brick house on the Olympic site shortly after ten o’clock. Less than 90 minutes later, the end of Tayfun Korkut, who he had only brought in as a rescuer trainer 104 days ago, was officially sealed after a crisis meeting of the Hertha grandees around President Werner Gegenbauer. Bobic quickly sped away in his electric limousine.
Seventh coach in almost three years
“After a promising start, we have now openly and clearly analyzed the development of performance and results. We have decided to make another change,” Bobic was quoted as saying in a club statement.
After the 0:2 in the crisis summit at Borussia Mönchengladbach and the fall to 17th place in the table, the Berliners would take Magath as the seventh coach in almost three years, nobody suspected. “We will inform you about the successor to the position of head coach as soon as this personnel issue has been finally clarified,” said the rather narrow press release. The resolution came nine hours later.
The fourth coach on the payroll
Magath should now get the team, which has been labeled as difficult to train, on its feet. On Sunday, Hertha’s substitutes completed their regeneration session under the direction of strike coach and club legend Vedad Ibisevic, the goalkeepers trained on the pitch under goalkeeping coach Andreas Menger.
The whole Hertha drama is made clear by the fact that Magath will be the fourth coach on the payroll by the summer, which, alongside Korkut, also includes his predecessors Bruno Labbadia and Pal Dardai. Both would actually have been good candidates in the currently complicated situation, but have already burned out in the difficult Hertha cosmos.
The impression could hardly be blurred that the search was also difficult for Bobic. In the past few days, the big city unrest has once again led to a pitiful public image, one of Berlin’s parade disciplines. There were no comments from investor Lars Windhorst on the latest development on Sunday.
“We rely on the positive effects of a new beginning”
The day after the 0:2 in Mönchengladbach, the fifth defeat in a row, was still reserved for the industry-standard phrases. “There are still eight games left to get the necessary points for staying up. With this decision we want to make everyone involved even more aware of the situation. We are counting on the positive effects of a new start,” said Bobic.
His image as a miracle manager is also at stake, as the 50-year-old knows after being kicked out of the coach for the second time in the first eight months of his tenure in Berlin. He only stuck to Dardai in the summer of 2021 to create continuity. The plan is long gone. Now Magath has to save Hertha – and also Bobic’s reputation.