Special Moments — Mainz 05
In front of the north stand at the Bruchwegstadion stood a man in a cream leather jacket and black shirt, constantly reaching for his mobile phone.
Unforgettable Moments
In front of the north stand at the
In front of the north stand at the Bruchwegstadion stood a man in a cream leather jacket and black shirt, constantly reaching for his mobile phone.
In front of the north stand at the Bruchwegstadion stood a man in a cream leather jacket and black shirt, constantly reaching for his mobile phone. He was Christian Heidel, then the honorary manager of Mainz 05 and, in his main profession, a car dealer. He was living through the most important day of his career — or more accurately, suffering through it.
Mainz were taking on Eintracht Trier on May 23, 2004, with promotion to the Bundesliga within touching distance. Too much had gone wrong in Wolfsburg, Berlin and Braunschweig in earlier years for Heidel to trust any feeling of joy before the job was truly done.
A little farther forward, another man paced the
A little farther forward, another man paced the technical area — the man to whom Heidel and all of Mainz owed that fateful situation in the first place: Jürgen Klopp, Mainz coach since 2001.
A little farther forward, another man paced the technical area — the man to whom Heidel and all of Mainz owed that fateful situation in the first place: Jürgen Klopp, Mainz coach since 2001. Klopp kept pulling players to the touchline, barking instructions, gesticulating, willing it over the line. In 1997, as a player, he too had failed to take the club up in dramatic fashion against Wolfsburg. This time had to be different.
By 3:43 p.m., as Karlsruhe were leading against
By 3:43 p.m., as Karlsruhe were leading against Aachen and Mainz’s own game tilted their way, Klopp was bursting and Heidel was close to tears.
By 3:43 p.m., as Karlsruhe were leading against Aachen and Mainz’s own game tilted their way, Klopp was bursting and Heidel was close to tears. When Manuel Friedrich made it 2:0, the old curse was finally going to break. With a 3:0 win over Trier and Karlsruhe beating Aachen 1:0, promotion was secure.
“This is what we’ve been trying to do for three years and now we’re simply happy. I think we’ve earned it the hard way,” Heidel said with tears in his eyes on ZDF.
Dramatic Turning Points
In the dressing room Klopp opened the first
In the dressing room Klopp opened the first of a number of promotion beers.
In the dressing room Klopp opened the first of a number of promotion beers. He still could not quite believe what had happened, but he could explain it in that ironic, intelligent way that would later captivate Germany as a TV pundit, Dortmund as a champion coach and Liverpool as a European giant. “To do this kind of thing for three years and then pull it off like this — what a script,” he told SWR, before joking about adopting Karlsruhe scorer Conor Casey.
It was classic Klopp. Like hardly anyone else,
It was classic Klopp.
It was classic Klopp. Like hardly anyone else, he knew how to puncture the brutality of football business with humor. Together with Christian Heidel — who once called Mainz “the greyest mouse among all the grey mice of the second division” — he had dragged a club into the Bundesliga that for decades had not even been a major force in Rhineland-Palatinate.
In the shadow of the quasi-cultishly revered 1. FC Kaiserslautern, every club between the Rhine and the Moselle struggled for attention. Mainz had long tried to increase their appeal. The “Pappnasen,” as some in the city called them, lacked the money to put a first-rate side into the ramshackle ground at the Bruchweg.
The stadium itself, built on wartime rubble, had long resembled a district sports ground rather than a serious arena. Financial crises repeatedly threatened professional football in Mainz; in 1976 the club even gave up its second-division licence voluntarily and dropped down.
From 1989 onward, Christian Heidel tried to bring
From 1989 onward, Christian Heidel tried to bring seriousness into the club.
From 1989 onward, Christian Heidel tried to bring seriousness into the club. He had bought into a car dealership at twenty, his father was a mayor and head of construction in Mainz, and in 1992 he moved onto the board. “Mainz is home, a life’s mission, and this club is somewhere also my baby,” he would later say.
It was also, for a while, a coaching carousel. Between 1992 and 2001 Mainz changed coaches 15 times. The last trainer to leave without cries of “Helau” was Eckhard Krautzun.
On February 28, 2001 — Rose Monday in
On February 28, 2001 — Rose Monday in Mainz — the club parted ways with Krautzun after seven games without a win and a place in the relegation zone.
On February 28, 2001 — Rose Monday in Mainz — the club parted ways with Krautzun after seven games without a win and a place in the relegation zone. Heidel sat at home with little appetite for the televised parade and thought: something has to change. His idea was a man from within.
“Kloppo wanted to be a coach anyway,” he thought to himself, phoned him, and offered him the job. Klopp later reenacted the call in his own style: Christian Heidel rings up, says they’re throwing Eckhard out, asks whether he can imagine doing it. Klopp did not need long.
That Rose Monday decision changed Mainz forever.
Klopp answered the team’s questions with tactical rigor
Klopp answered the team’s questions with tactical rigor and with the footballing understanding he had absorbed from Wolfgang Frank.
Klopp answered the team’s questions with tactical rigor and with the footballing understanding he had absorbed from Wolfgang Frank. He spoke the players’ language, never belonged to the fraternity of empty phrase-makers, and quickly developed into the youngest coach in German professional football. Bild briefly nicknamed him Harry Potter because of his round spectacles — thankfully that never stuck.
What did stick was his impact. He kept Mainz up in 2000/01, took them to the Bundesliga in 2004 and, a year later, into the UEFA Cup qualifying rounds. The same year, Heidel’s car dealership filed for insolvency; only then did he become a full-time manager.
After Klopp left, Heidel pulled another coaching ace from the deck in the shape of Thomas Tuchel, then planned his next coup: a new stadium. The image of Mainz as a self-proclaimed carnival club, complete with Narhalla March after every goal, also bears Heidel’s stamp. By 2016, under another of Heidel’s inspired appointments, Martin Schmidt, Mainz even reached a European group stage. Heidel had lifted turnover from three million to 78 million euros. So much for insolvency.
The moment when Christian Heidel imagined Jürgen Klopp
The moment when Christian Heidel imagined Jürgen Klopp as the successor to Eckhard Krautzun and made the later world coach the trainer of Mainz 05 on ...
The moment when Christian Heidel imagined Jürgen Klopp as the successor to Eckhard Krautzun and made the later world coach the trainer of Mainz 05 on a Rose Monday will remain a special moment in the club’s footballing history.