(Drivebycuriosity) - Football, in the US known as soccer, is big business. Clubs like Bayern München, Real Madrid, Manchester City & Paris Saint-Germain spend hundreds of millions to hire top players. Some of these top clubs are financed by oil sheiks, others by hedge fund billionaires. Red Bull invests a part of its huge marketing budget into Red Bull Leibzig, Red Bull Salzburg & Red Bull New York. Volkswagen owns VFL Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen belongs to the pharma giant Bayer. Billionaire Dietmar Hopp, co-founder of Germany´s software goliath SAP, is the owner of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and financed the steep rise of the village club to Deutsche Bundesliga, Germany`s first football league. And big city clubs like Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund, Union Berlin & 1. FTC Köln, each rely on a huge fan base.
In summer 2023 the Bundesliga got a new member, a club from a tiny city in Southern Germany: 1 FCH Heidenheim 1846. The club`s home is a industrial place with just about 50,000 people. There is no white knight who finances them and no huge corporation as sponsor. It all grew organically. Heidenheim is supported by local businesses and has yet to gather a proper fan base.
The club was created 2007 by a spin-off from the local sports club and played in Oberliga Baden Württemberg, the fifth tier of the German football league system. In season 2008-09 Heidenheim rose to Regionalliga Süd, in 2009-10 to 3. Liga (league), in 2013-14 to 2. Bundesliga and reached finally in 2022-23 the Bundesliga.
The rise is a vision of Holger Sanwald, FC Heidenheim´s Geschäftsführer (CEO). He has the belief that even a small club could advance to the top, based on a dynamic regional economy. He believes in the support by regional but global corporations like Karl Zeiss (optics), Steiff (Teddy Bears), Voith (engineering), Hartmann (healthcare) and many mid- and small-sized businesses, including bakeries, doctor offices, workshops and such.
Heidenheim`s career was realized by Frank Schmidt, the coach since 2007, the longest time in Germany`s professional football. June 2023, short after Heidenheim`s "Aufstieg" to Bundesliga, Schmidt published "Unkaputtbar", a kind of autobiography ( 216 pages in German amazon ). The term means indestructible, contrary to the German term "kaputt gehen". It´s a quote by another German football coach who praised Heidenheim`s & Schmidt`s very combative mindset.
Schmidt describes Heidenheim`s sociological & economical background, shaped by climate (highest and coldest stadium in German professional football) and the frugal regional "Swabian" mentality and gives a chronology of the club´s development, the greatest successes and disappointments, the arrogance of HSV Hamburg Fans ("On your knees, you peasants, Hamburg is your host"), how he became Germany`s record football coach and how he deals with defeat.
Spoiler Alarm: The following paragraphs are mainly based on the book:
Schmidt, born 1974, portrays his obsession with football. In his youth he was an uprising player, tall & ambitious, and in 1993 he played in the U20 World Championship in Australia. Unfortunately time wasn`t on his side, years later he wasn`t fast enough for modern football. But he amassed a lot experience!
In 2003 he returned to his birth town Heidenheim and started as player (working parallel at Hartmann, responsible for internal corporation accounting & currency trade based on his banking education). In 2007 he replaced the former coach, who had been let go, first as interim coach and after 2 victories as head coach.
Second Chance
Being a tiny budget club Heidenheim cannot keep top players for long. If one gets attention, for instance as goal shooter, a bigger club wants to buy him (the contract between club & player). These transfers bolster the finances of little clubs. Therefore the coach often needs to find replacements who fit into the club and to Schmidt´s concept. Heidenheim´s rise shows that the coach not only replaced "Leistungsträger" (high performers) successfully, he made the team even stronger.
"Heidenheim
is a chance for many players. We often chose players, who failed
elsewhere. Players who start promising, but whose careers stalled.
These are very good premises - as for the player as well as for us. Giving someone a second chance is not only human, it usually also pays
back" .
Heidenheim`s coach chooses players who are capable to confront new situations without
fear and are passionate. Schmidt wants resilience, the ability to never give
up. He claims that mentality can be exercised and can been exemplified by the coach. If the coach strives to win always, then the team endeavors to win always as well.
Schmidt doesn`t measure a player on the goals he scores, but on how many chances he works out, and primarily, how he behave, after missing a goal chance and if he is unflinching.
He likes challenges; when the team stands with "its back to the wall" he has to find a solution. "There is nothing better, then having a new idea to revitalize a difficult situation".
Schmidt lays the basis on athletic exercise, giving the team the strength to run more kilometers - and more sprints - than their opponent. But crucial is the willingness to reach the limits again and again and even to shift them sometimes.
It is paramount to fight until the referee whistles the game end. No wonder that Schmidt quotes Churchill: "Blood, Sweat & Tears". He said after a tight but well deserved win: "Crucial was not that we botched chances, crucial was, that we continued after the botched chances."
The book ends with the sentence: "We are not yet finished."
( source)
At the end of 2023 and the beginning of the winter break Heidenheim stands at place 9, in the upper half of the league which has 18 teams. At the end of the season - match day 34, two clubs on the bottom of the league will be relegated, number 16 has to defend their membership in 2 games against No. 3 of the second league.
Now Schmidt has the greatest challenge of his career: In order to stay in the Bundesliga Heidenheim has to leave at least 3 clubs behind in the table.
Good luck to Schmidt and 1. FC Heidenheim.
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