EXKLUSIV-INTERVIEW
As a long-time assistant coach of Ottmar Hitzfeld, Michael Henke won everything there is to be won in club football.Later he worked as a chief analyst under coach Jürgen Klinsmann and as an assistant coach in Iran and in China.In an interview with goalundpox, today's sports director of FC Ingolstadt reviews his career.
Henke tells of false prejudices against FC Bayern, his job preservatives at Oliver Kahn as well as Hasan Salihamidzic and Jürgen Klinsmann's revolutionary work.Henke also remembers lamb slaughter in Iran, his discharge on an airfield in Oman and supposedly not resilient Chinese.
Mr. Henke, you were only at Borussia Dortmund and then at Bayern Munich for many years of assistant coach from Ottmar Hitzfeld.Can you remember your first encounter with him?
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Henke: Yes, very good even.I was under Horst Köppel before Hitzfeld's arrival assistant coach from Dortmund.At some point in spring 1991 manager Michael Meier informed me that Köppel left the club at the end of the season and Ottmar will be his successor.The club invited him to the last game of the season, I should pick it up from Düsseldorf Airport.When driving from there to Dortmund, we had contact and time to exchange a little for the first time.Our views of football have covered and also humanly we were immediately on a wavelength.Nothing changed during our time together.
Was it Hitzfeld's wish that you will remain in office as an assistant coach?
Henke: Dortmund quickly made it clear during the negotiations that there is already a co-trainer and who should also remain in office.Since Ottmar's assistant coach wanted to stay in Switzerland from his previous ward of Grasshoppers Zurich anyway, he also had no problem.
Michael Henke: "FC Bayern seemed arrogant to me"
After seven successful years in Dortmund, they moved on to FC Bayern together with Hitzfeld in 1998.Were there concerns to run over to the big rival?
Henke: The Ottmar comes from the south and accordingly the change at an emotional level was relatively irrelevant to him.As a native of Westphalia, it fell heavily: Dortmund is finally my home club and my children slept in BVB bedding back then.However, I tried to think only at a professional level when making decisions and of course I couldn't refuse in this regard.Dortmund has become more important among us and also has the hottest stadium in Europe, but FC Bayern is a bigger club just because of its history and will always remain so.
How did your children react to the change?
Henke: Fortunately, they were still small and influenced at the time.After a few weeks they already slept in Bavaria bed linen.However, I still have an emotional bond with Dortmund than to FC Bayern to this day.
Dortmund stands for the passion slogan "Real Love", FC Bayern for the slightly arrogant "Mia San Mia".Did you find a difference between the two clubs in everyday work?
Henke: From a distance from the distance, FC Bayern and his acting people actually seemed arrogant.This prejudice broke up after my change within a very short time.Uli Hoeneß, Franz Beckenbauer, Sepp Maier as a goalkeeper coach, Gerd Müller as assistant coach of amateurs: FC Bayern was full of football heroes at the time, who were all humanly encountered in personal ways in personal ways.The handling was like in Dortmund.
In his function as a manager at the time, Hoeneß was known to receive players in his property on Lake Tegernsee even without consulting the coaching team.How did you find that?
Henke: It always conveys a strange picture to the outside when a manager communicates with players behind the coach's back.But in this case it made sense because Hoeneß always acted in the sense of the big picture.With his special way, he got many players back on track through personal conversations.In this respect, these actions were often even a help for the coaching team.
Michael Henke: "Matthew's most intensely suffered"
Her first season at FC Bayern ended with the 1999 Champions League final in 1999 against Manchester United.Who suffered from the longest, who was looking forward to the fastest?
Henke: Lothar Matthäus certainly suffered most intensely.With his age at that time it was clear that he would probably not get this chance again.The first one who at least found his composite was Ottmar.Although I have not yet known whether that was real or played.
What strategies have you considered to set up the team?
Henke: At first it was important that everyone went on vacation and gained distance.In the preparation of the season, Ottmar then took on the role of a sports psychologist and conveyed to the players in many group and one-on-one discussions that it is part of the development of a large team to deal with such a negative experience.It was crucial that he reached the leader of the team like Stefan Effenberg and Oliver Kahn relatively quickly with this approach.In order to remain credible, only the success had to come.
And they came.Two years later, the Champions League victory in penalty shooting against FC Valencia followed.
Henke: I can remember exactly that I was completely convinced of our victory all day long.Never before or after I had a certainty of victory in my life as that day.Before the penalty shootout, I told the players: "Everything doesn't matter anyway.I know anyway that we win."The emotional explosion after the decisive penalty was still enormous.
Michael Henke: "I thought that Brazzo would be a good coach"
With Kahn as an coming CEO and Hasan Salihamidzic as sports director, two players of the then team are currently holding management positions at FC Bayern.Did you see the potential for these roles at that time?
Henke: At Brazzo I always thought that he would be a really good coach later.He is an emotional guy who can sweep people away.He succeeded as a player and I think he would have succeeded as a coach.Kahn was already the manager type back then.I expected him to do something outside of football - as was the case at the beginning of his second career.
Why this guess?
Henke: Kahn already had a wide range of interests far beyond his own goalkeeper game.It was more enthusiastic about things: economic and mental aspects.Even as an active player, he taught himself a lot in this regard.
In 2004 they left FC Bayern.Hitzfeld later told that he was about to be a burnout.Was that aware of that at the time?
Henke: I noticed his face and appearance that he is at the limit.I didn't notice that the situation was so serious.Although we had a very trusting relationship and spent a lot of time together, he would never have told me about such personal things.Ottmar keeps his problems for himself and does it with himself.He is a cross -border commuter in his personality and must therefore be extremely careful not to exceed this limit.
Did you experience it more relaxed during the second term from 2007 to 2008?
Henke: At least it was a little better.At Ottmar it is crucial that he can recharge his tank in between.At the time, it was also good for him that he had not switched directly from the head coaching post in Dortmund to Bayern.The intermediate year as a sports director outside the top of the fire was very important for him.
Michael Henke: "Bavaria still benefits from Klinsmann"
After Hitzfeld's farewell in 2008, they stayed at FC Bayern and worked under his successor Jürgen Klinsmann as a chief analyst.How do you remember his arrival?
Henke: Klinsmann immediately brought a lot of new impulses - and not only the Buddhas on the roof.Within a very short time, he has pushed a conversion of the association area and created player residence rooms that exist to this day.He made sure that the players on the training area were given proper food and access to sports psychologists that a club's own television studio is being built and that an analysis department is created.Klinsmann was ahead of his time.He has led FC Bayern into modernity and the club benefits from it to this day.Much of what he initiated is indispensable today.
You have managed the structure of the analysis department.
Henke: Until then there were only a few scouts at FC Bayern who have looked at games and players.In this respect, it was an exciting task to build a coordinated analysis department.Compared to today, however, also much more complex because the technical requirements were completely different.
How tight was your exchange with Klinsmann?
Henke: Klinsmann was less coach, but rather chief of staff of a huge team of coaches.I saw myself as his service provider who provides him with all the information about the next opponent.However, the communication process itself was not optimal: I worked out the topics in German, then told you with my moderate English Klinsmann and his international team of coaches, who then passed it on to the team.In such a process, there is automatically loss of content.I would have better introduced the results of my work to the team afterwards.In my view, that would have been more effective.Overall, however, you can see on these processes how complex the structures were, with which Klinsmann was already working with.
Klinsmann was released after less than ten months.Could you understand this decision of the club?
Henke: This is a normal process in football.If the results are not correct, the conviction for every project, however interesting, is quickly lost.
Then they initially worked as a Zvonimir Soldo's assistant coach at 1.FC Köln before moving into Iran in the role of FC Esteghlal.How did this commitment come about?
Henke: After my farewell from Cologne, I longingly waited for an interesting offer, but nothing came.At some point an Iranian acquaintance contacted me.He lived in Germany for a long time and was back in Tehran at that time.When I was still working at Cologne, he wanted to put an Iranian international with us in vain.This time he had put it in his head to bring me to Esteglal as an assistant coach.I kept blocking, but he didn't give up.Because nothing better came, I agreed at some point.
Did you regret it afterwards?
Henke: No, no second.I was lucky enough to have been in Iran in a phase of liberalization.You could even listen to western music in the car with an open window.I was told that the police would have come a few years earlier.I felt free in Tehran and had no problems.But my consultant always said: "Say 'nothing on the phone.That is safely listened to."
What is the mood in the Iranian stadiums?
Henke: There is a wide range.Some first division teams have stadiums like in German 3.League and hardly any fans, but the big derbies against Persepolis came to 100.000 fans to the games.It was particularly impressive that the spectator contingents were always divided 50/50.Half of the stadium was Esteghlal-Blau, the other Persepolis-Rot.There is no such thing in Germany.The euphoria in the whole city was also crazy when we won the trophy in 2012.That could not be compared to a double victory of FC Bayern.
Also flowed beer at the title party?
Henke: No, in Iran no player or fan dares to drink a sip of alcohol in public.This is only possible in a private setting behind closed doors.When I was eating in a restaurant, my standard drink order was always: a non-alcoholic beer from the can.Similarly rigorous such as the alcohol ban, only the veiling of women is enforced in Iran.Even the German Lufthansa steward meals as soon as they enter Iranian soil.
Michael Henke: "The players went through Lamm-Blut"
What role does religion play in football?
Henke: A very big one.During the final training before each important game, a priest came to the training ground and died out a lamb there.Then the players went to the training ground with their soccer shoes through the blood.That should bring divine assistance.In the evening they prepared the lamb and ate.
Did you have to participate in these rituals?
Henke: No.I always kept in the background and turned away as soon as it was so far.
Was prayed in the cabin?
Henke: Yes, before the coaching speech, the players always turned towards Mecca and prayed.I found it amazing that they always knew the exact direction.At some point I asked about it and then they explained to me that there is a small arrow in every room in any corner that shows towards Mecca.
What do you remember from the time in Iran?
Henke: When I was released at an airfield in Oman.We were just on the way to a game of the Asian Champions League and have been invited in Oman.Until I got my salary, I usually had to put a little pressure on.At that point, the payments were in deficiency again for weeks and so I was looking for a conversation with the president very quietly.Completely out of nowhere, it escalated and he shouted: "Here I determine when paying! And you are released!"Since I really wanted to be part of the Champions League game, I still flew with the Tross.The next morning the president came to me and said that I could continue and to get my salary when returning to Tehran.Then he ordered me in his huge office building and handed me the money in cash.
Michael Henke: "Chinese do not consider themselves resilient"
The time in Iran was not their only international adventure: in 2018 they worked for a year as an assistant coach of the Chinese Super League club SHEHUA from Shanghai.To what extent do Iranian and Chinese football differ?
Henke: In China, everything runs out more professional and there is more money in the game, but Iran is still far better in terms of football.
Why is that?
Henke: The main problem is the general mentality of the Chinese, which is also due to the training.It's just about optimizing processes and repeating it infinitely often.Creativity doesn't matter.In some sports, such as in table tennis, that works.If you repeat your accusation a thousand times, it will be better.Football is also about interaction with colleagues and spatial thinking.This approach does not work.The second problem is that the Chinese do not consider themselves resilient.If I recommended harder training to the Chinese head coach, he only said: "Michael, that doesn't work, we are not used to it.Chinese have to sleep a lot, eat well and are not allowed to train too much."I think that's an excuse.
In the past few years, several foreign top players have moved to China for a lot of money.Did that bring football?
Henke: International influences are generally something good.The Chinese approach in this regard is stupid because the wrong variety is committed to players.I always said the person responsible for my club: "If you already want to spend a lot of money on legionnaires, then get at least players who can continue the Chinese and are not just there for scoring.Do not get South American strikers, but Scandinavian defenders.“With many legionnaires you also notice that they are only there for money earning money.
How was that with your team at the time?
Henke: With Demba BA and Obafemi Martin we had two foreign full professionals who were also regarded in the team.Then there were two Colombians who took it extremely easily and were no longer willing to go to performance limits.Such players do not bring Chinese football further.
In China, the legionaries earn significantly more than the local players.Was there a envy within the team?
