Tragic — Mainz 05

Wolfgang Frank – The Football Visionary: Before a

Wolfgang Frank – The Football Visionary: Before a regional-league match at Offenbach’s Bieberer Berg, a minute’s silence was held in honor of former Bundesliga player and coach Wolfgang Frank, who had just died from a brain tumor.

Wolfgang Frank – The Football Visionary: Before a regional-league match at Offenbach’s Bieberer Berg, a minute’s silence was held in honor of former Bundesliga player and coach Wolfgang Frank, who had just died from a brain tumor. Frank coached Mainz in two spells and transformed the club’s footballing culture. “There is no such thing as coincidence,” was his creed — at least not in football.

More than a dozen former players, primarily from his Mainz days, became coaches partly because they were so influenced by his methods, among them Jürgen Klopp, Sandro Schwarz and Torsten Lieberknecht. Frank was one of the first coaches in German professional football to use a back four and zonal defending, with compact lines and 4-4-2 structures. At Mainz he worked a small miracle, turning an almost doomed side into the best team of the second half of the 1995/96 season and preserving second-division status on the final day.

He introduced video analysis to accelerate the tactical learning process. Klopp would later develop Frank’s ideas further and repeatedly described himself as Frank’s student.

Dirk Karkuth – The Early Death: Dirk Karkuth,

Dirk Karkuth – The Early Death: Dirk Karkuth, born in Gelsenkirchen in January 1962, died there in January 2003 at just 41, after suffering a stroke.

Dirk Karkuth – The Early Death: Dirk Karkuth, born in Gelsenkirchen in January 1962, died there in January 2003 at just 41, after suffering a stroke. He had worked as player, manager and coach at a number of clubs, including Mainz 05.