Tobias Schweinsteiger: “Erik Ten Hag made me want to become a coach”

Since August at VfL in the 3rd division

At the end of August, Tobias Schweinsteiger took on a position as head coach at VfL Osnabrück for the first time in his career. It is thanks to a well-known coach that he continued to play on the sidelines after his time as an active player, which ended at FC Bayern II after the 2014/15 season. “Erik ten Hag made me want to become a coach,” said Schweinsteiger in an interview with “sports1“. The Dutchman was in charge of the Munich reserves between 2013 and 2015 before he was drawn to Ajax Amsterdam and Manchester United via FC Utrecht.

“Because as a player I often thought like a coach, at some point he asked me if I wanted to train the U15s next week. I did that and realized that it suited me and that it was a lot of fun. The boys in the U15s also had fun and asked if I would come back,” explained Schweinsteiger. Born in Rosenheim, he became Tim Walter’s assistant in the Munich U17s for the 2015/16 season and followed today’s HSV coach two years later to the reserves of the German record champions. There were also positions as team boss with the second team of LASK in Austria and as assistant coach at HSV and 1. FC Nuremberg until Schweinsteiger took over responsibility in Osnabrück.

He said he “deliberately chose his previous career steps”. “The role of head coach was my goal. It was always clearly communicated in Nuremberg that I would seize the opportunity as soon as it presented itself and the general conditions were right. When the request came from VfL, I could immediately sense an emotion with the club and the stadium,” stressed Schweinsteiger. Based on the experience he had gained, he felt “well prepared” for the new task. When asked which coach Schweinsteiger copied something from, he replied that coaches like Marcelo Bielsa, Jürgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and ten Hag were “in a way role models”. He would look at them “with special attention to certain topics”. However, every coach must “go his own way,” he emphasized.

After eight games as a VfL coach, the record is relatively balanced with three wins, one draw and four defeats. “From my point of view, we have fundamentally developed as a team, but we have repeatedly revealed weaknesses that we are working on,” said the 40-year-old. VfL is in 15th place in the 3rd division, on Sunday (2 p.m.) Osnabrück is a guest at penultimate FSV Zwickau. “The current reality is that our points gap is greater up than down. So we shouldn’t be talking about the 2nd Bundesliga at the moment, but simply approach every game with high intensity and willingness,” said Schweinsteiger. However, VfL have “ambitious goals”, which also played a role in his decision to move to Osnabrück.

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