SC Paderborn announced the commitment of Max Kruse on Friday (06/30/2023). After the fiasco with Stefan Effenberg, the club is trying again with an actor who will make the headlines.
Even more tranquil than the Westphalian city of Paderborn (approx. 150,000 inhabitants) is its football club, SC Paderborn. With fairly modest means, the club made it into the Bundesliga in 2014 and 2019, but after one season in each case it went back to the 2nd division, where the SCP came quite close to achieving this feat for the third time last season.
Paderborn stands for attractive attacking football, for being able to develop players and giving them a platform to make the step into more glorious clubs. All of this far from the hustle and bustle. Current examples are Ron Schallenberg (on Schalke 04) and Julian Justvan (on 1899 Hoffenheim), who, after a strong year, should now be much more in the public eye elsewhere.
Kruse wants to “show performance on the pitch”
However, the club does not want to be satisfied with the image as a club idyll. Because Max Kruse, 35-year-old ex-national player and recently without a club, joins the SCP. Paderborn did not provide any information on the contract period on Friday.
“I don’t want to talk so much, because in the end I’ll show my performance on the pitch,” Kruse was quoted as saying: “There are really only three things to say: I’m really into football, I’m hungry for success and I want to work with SC Attack Paderborn 07 from above.”
Kruse’s footballing qualities and goal instinct are undisputed, said Managing Director Sport Benjamin Weber, who also attested to his “leadership and “experience”.
Effenberg brought “plenty of material for a docu-soap”
Memories of another star are awakened. With Stefan Effenberg, Paderborn got the big hustle and bustle in the club and the city from one day to the next in October 2015.
The “Tiger” took over as coach at the then second division club, but after 15 games with an average of 0.8 points per game, the story was quickly over. And it ended shortly after Effenberg’s dismissal with relegation to the 3rd division. That was the price of being in the media spotlight for a few months more than most Bundesliga clubs.
After the end of the cooperation, the “Neue Westfälische” headlined “End with SC Hollywood” and wrote about what happened at the SCP after two start wins for Effenberg: “What followed in the next few months would have plenty of material for a docu-soap or a Film satire is required, be it the suspension of the players Brückner, Lakic and Saglik, which no one could really understand, the unspeakable training camp affair about bottomless striker Proschwitz or the recent farce about Effenberg’s failures in matters of coaching license Twitter posts by ‘tiger wife’ Claudia Effenberg are more present in the media than tactics, formation or the next opponent.”
Kruse was an absolute hot topic in Wolfsburg
With Max Kruse, a player is now moving to Paderborn, who is also a big name in football, but above all causes a similar sensation in the media. Coach Lukas Kwasniok has to adjust to that. Kruse’s last station so far was VfL Wolfsburg, where those responsible were getting more and more annoyed by the fact that the questions on every topic only revolved around the “Kruse factor”.
When Sky reporter Jens Westen repeatedly asked about Kruse’s performance as a joker after a league game, coach Niko Kovac reacted accordingly. “Man Jens, stop it. Don’t be boring. It’s boring, the same thing every time. We want to talk about football. There are nine others, ten with a goalkeeper,” he said. Kovac had to position himself again and again during this time – because he didn’t rely on Kruse and he mainly spread what he thought about it on social media.
As part-time workers for the national player
Kruse is a free spirit – on and off the field. In 307 Bundesliga games he scored 97 goals and provided 79 assists, and he was even an international (14 internationals). Both in the DFB team and with many of his employers, the 35-year-old failed at some point despite his outstanding talent. Diligence in training was never one of Kruse’s great strengths, and he was at least as talkative off the field as he was on the field.
Kruse is notorious for his passion for poker, having played tournaments during the Bundesliga season in the past. That was always tolerated. But what Kruse published on social media was more problematic in Wolfsburg. In a video on the “Twitch” platform, he once said about his life as a footballer: “My daily working hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., I would say.”
Kovac replied: “One comes in after training and leaves immediately. And there are others who stay longer and do follow-up treatment, care, stretching, the whole program. There are also players who spend many more hours at the training ground . Effectively and qualitatively.” It was just one of many problems that Kruse’s videos caused the club.
Haven’t played a game in almost two years
Kruse’s working hours have fallen drastically for more than 20 months. On September 3, 2022, the left-footed player made his last game for Wolfsburg, after a muscle fiber tear that put him out of action, the contract was terminated two months later. Since then, Kruse has been unsuccessfully looking for a new club.
