1. FC Heidenheim is going into its first Bundesliga season as an outsider. But the climber wants to cause a surprise in his debut season.
Apparently, 1. FC Heidenheim hasn’t quite realized its dream of the Bundesliga yet. A current schedule can be found on the club website – but only from the 2nd division. The euphoria after the promotion to the “Dorfklub” from the Swabian Alb is still huge.
At the beginning of the week, the few season tickets were sold out in just three hours, and long lines had formed in front of the office. Everyone wants to see the blatant outsider with veteran coach Frank Schmidt against FC Bayern or Borussia Dortmund. But one thing was already clear before the start on Wednesday with performance tests: the small 1. FC Heidenheim remains true to its principles despite larger financial resources – “without any bling-bling”, as CEO Holger Sanwald emphasized weeks ago.
Instead, FCH needs identity, as coach Frank Schmidt said in an interview with SWR Sport. “We have to keep playing with a lot of passion and a lot of energy,” said the coach. The challenges are different in the Bundesliga, Schmidt made that clear. Less time, more opponent pressure, the merciless punishment of mistakes by the opponent. The list of requirements for the players is long. “Everyone has to be willing to develop further.”
FCH starts with newcomers
Even if the FCH in Nikola Dovedan (Austria Vienna), Benedikt Gimber (Jahn Regensburg), Omar Haktab Traore (VfL Osnabrück), Eren Dinkci (Werder Bremen) and Marvin Pieringer (Schalke 04) As expected, no big names were presented – as the 57th club in Bundesliga history, they are far from hiding. Defeats are never okay, captain Patrick Mainka recently told the “kicker”.
Schmidt will certainly also ensure this way of thinking, because he is so obsessed with success that he won’t even let his daughter win the Mau-Mau. The 49-year-old is the father of success at FCH, but he rejects any form of honor such as a monument (“There will be a pee at some point”) or an open-ended contract. That’s the way he is, “Frank,” said Sanwald calmly.
Now it’s time for the FCH to start preparing. “It will certainly be crisp enough,” said Jan-Niklas Beste. But at least the drudgery should pay off in the end. After all, “a highlight game awaits FCH every weekend,” says the top performer.
Heidenheim starts against Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga
In order for things to continue successfully in the upper house, Schmidt and his “unbreakable team” will first prepare for the relegation battle starting in Wolfsburg from Friday to July 14 in Natz-Schabs in South Tyrol. The underdog wants to show it all – like Unterhaching, Neunkirchen or Homburg, all of which lasted at least two seasons in the Bundesliga.
