“Well, we haven’t really talked about football, have we? There are more important things in life.” With these words, SC Freiburg trainer Christian Streich ended an emotional press conference before his team’s match against Armenia Bielefeld in September. During the press conference, the issue of Germany’s recent influx of refugees was brought up, and one journalist asked Streich his opinions on the matter. What followed was typical Streich: emotional, political and eloquent, and delivered in his thick south-German accent.
The refugee issue in Germany is complex. It has polarised family and friends, caused political and social chasms, and affected the whole nation these past few months. What’s more, it is an issue without easy solutions. Still, with no intention of sidestepping the issue, Streich gave an impassioned answer, almost plea, to the gathered journalists on behalf of the country’s new arrivals. It was a scene more at home at a UN convention, not the buildup to a second division football game – but Streich is no ordinary football trainer.
Following their latest victory, away at Heidenheim on Friday night, SC Freiburg sit top of the 2. Bundesliga, above RB Leipzig on goal difference. As it stands, they look set to bounce back from the bitter disappointment of relegation from the top flight last season.
As has been the norm in recent years, anyone wanting drama from the Bundesliga should look to the bottom of the table rather than the top. Bayern Munich’s dominance has barely been challenged as Borussia Dortmund have regrouped after losing Jürgen Klopp, while Wolfsburg and Leverkusen have continued to falter. Over the same three or four seasons, though, the scrap to stay in the league has involved some big names, such as Hamburg, VfB Stuttgart and Werder Bremen – all of whom are among the top five Bundesliga teams of all time in terms of points won.
Last season was no different, as both VfB and Hamburg found themselves in real danger of dropping into the 2. Bundesliga. In fact, whereas Stuttgart narrowly escaped, Hamburg could only finish third from bottom, meaning a two-leg play-off with Karlsruhe, the third-place team from the second division. Many would argue that Hamburg, who also needed the play-off the season before to stay up, deserved to go down. Nevertheless, despite falling behind in both legs, the 1983 European Cup winners managed to hold on to their Bundesliga status and they remain the only ever-present team in the league’s 52-year history.
But while VfB and Hamburg huffed and puffed, and wheezed their way to safety, SC Freiburg quietly slipped into the bottom two and were relegated. Perhaps any team that finishes in the relegation zone deserves to be there, but the negative atmosphere around the larger clubs at the bottom left many thinking that their time had come – even some of their own fans. Freiburg, on the other hand, were on the receiving end of a wave of sympathy from neutrals as they went down, losing away at Hannover on the final day of the season.
Freiburg had only been in the bottom two for eight of the previous 33 weeks and went into the final round of matches on the back of a 2-1 home victory against Bayern Munich. Streich’s team had finished 14th the season before and were always going to be among the favourites for the drop. However, their relegation never seemed nailed on and many thought, and maybe hoped, they would somehow save themselves. Many Bundesliga fans knew Freiburg and their trainer would be missed.
After serving as a youth coach under Robin Dutt for four years and then as an assistant manager to Marcus Sorg for the first half of the 2011-12 season, Streich was appointed head coach at the turn of the year. He was initially hit with a setback as star striker Papiss Cissé was sold to Newcastle for €12m in the January 2012 transfer window. Losing a key player midway through the season is hard for any team, but even more so when they are nailed to the bottom of the league. Cissé’s importance to the club was underlined when he finished as their top goalscorer that season with nine league goals, despite only playing the first half of the campaign. In the season before he had scored 22 league goals, finishing only behind Mario Gómez at Bayern Munich in the race for the golden boot.
Despite being new in the role, Streich was certainly not new to the club, where he had spent 15 years as a player and coach. He was aware of the young talent at his disposal and quickly reached into the youth set-up and reserve team to booster his depleted squad – perhaps most notably with Matthias Ginter, a powerful and promising teenage defender who was born and bred in Freiburg.
Already on the radar of the fans, Ginter had a debut to remember. After stepping up to train with the first team in the winter break, he came on as a second-half substitute in Streich’s first game in charge, a home clash against fellow strugglers Augsburg, two days after his 18th birthday. In the 88th minute, Ginter headed in a free-kick to seal three valuable points. Aside from making him an instant hit with supporters, the goal made Ginter the youngest Bundesliga goalscorer in the club’s history.
The match also gave viewers a taste of what was to come from the league’s most idiosyncratic trainer. As Ginter’s header hit the back of the net, the stadium erupted and the entire Freiburg bench ran on to to the pitch in celebration – apart from Streich. Motionless, he stood and took in the scene for a couple of seconds as his staff swarmed by him, before he suddenly jerked into action and ran down the touchline, bellowing at his players to get back into their own half and concentrate on seeing out the game. Gesticulating wildly and screaming to make himself heard over more than 20,000 relieved fans, you would think his team had just conceded.
The win started an impressive second half of the season. Although they won none of their next five games, collecting only two points, Streich then led Freiburg on a run of 10 games without defeat, picking up 22 points from a possible 30. And, having looked doomed in the winter break, they secured their safety with two games to spare, eventually finishing a very respectable 12th.
The following season, 2012-13, Streich really took the club forward. Ginter, the hero against Augsburg, was now a bona fide first-teamer, and was regularly joined in the starting XI by fellow young defenders Oliver Sorg and Christian Günter, goalkeeper Oliver Baumann and attacking midfielder Daniel Caligiuri. These five local players were joined by Max Kruse, Streich’s shrewd €750,000 summer signing from St. Pauli, who went on to finish the season with 11 goal and seven assists. Under the effervescent leadership of Streich, the team managed to carry their form from the back end of the old season into the new campaign, ending the first half of 2012-13 in fifth place – 13 places higher than the year before.
Free from the pressure of relegation, the team flourished – not only maintaining their league position and finishing fifth, but also reaching the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal for the first time in the club’s history. But for a defeat at the hands of Schalke on the final day of the season, SC Freiburg could have finished fourth, thus entering the Champions League qualification rounds. Still, a place in the Europa League and the club’s second best ever finish in the Bundesliga was still cause for celebration, as was the decision to award Streich – who was voted trainer of the year for 2013 by the league’s players – a new long-term deal.
The team’s performances and youthful exuberance won them new many fans as well as points. And as they became more acclaimed, so their star players become more coveted. Despite playing in Europe, Freiburg were powerless when larger clubs came knocking. Five of their key players, among them Caligiuri, Kruse and Cédric Makiadi – who between them were responsible for almost half of their league goals that season – were tempted elsewhere. Incidentally, all five players joined clubs that had finished below Freiburg in the league.
As is often the case, entry into the Europa League turned out to be a blight on their league form. The extra strain of midweek fixtures coupled with the significant departures and subsequent bedding in time required for new players culminated in a frustrating season, and the club only managed to lurch to safety two weeks before the end of 2013-14. Again, players came and, more notably, left in the summer. The two main departures were goalkeeper Baumann and, perhaps most bitterly disappointing for the fans, Ginter, who joined Borussia Dortmund for €10m.
With the lofty heights of two seasons ago long forgotten, many supporters foresaw a difficult campaign, and one that ultimately ended in relegation once the fallen giants of Hamburg and Stuttgart mustered together enough fight and quality to save themselves. The club’s recent seasons had won them fans and made them a natural second team for many people. As long as they weren’t facing your club, you’d generally want them to do well.
The club has many things going for it. Primarily, the attacking and expansive brand of football played under Streich, who is not afraid to put his faith in young players, including those promoted internally. Secondly, the city itself, nestled in south Germany, is one of the most beautiful places in the country, where palm trees grow and the warm temperatures draw people to linger in street cafes and bars in the evening. The Schwarzwald Stadion is one of those old-fashioned four-cornered grounds, rather than a sleek modern oval – a tight Subbuteo-like stadium with the fans close to the byline, where a capacity crowd of 24,000 can whip up quite an atmosphere.
And then there is the trainer. Streich is a dichotomy. On one hand, what you see it is what you get. He is a man without pretence – not even a tracksuit manager, but a jeans-and-T-shirt trainer. The son of a butcher, Streich is a straight talker, neither mincing his words nor hiding behind clichés. On the other hand, he is also a sensitive and reflective character who is at ease discussing current socio-political issues alongside football tactics.
His life is very much interwoven with the city of Freiburg. He began his playing days with FC Freiburger, the city’s second team, in the third tier of German football, and he returned there to end his career in the early 1990s. He also played for SC Freiburg for one season and began his coaching path with SC’s Under-19 squad, a position he held for over 15 years, winning three youth cups and one league title, before becoming co-trainer, and eventually trainer of the first team.
Just as Streich himself is refreshing, so too is the manner in which he has been treated by SC Freiburg and the club’s fans. Despite following a fifth-place finish with a scrap for survival, and then a disappointing relegation, both fans and club stuck by their man. There were no unrealistic expectations and no short-termism.
The club and manager did not hide their hurt when they went down. Streich choked up in the press conference following relegation and had to leave the room. But what better person to try and get them back up again? Despite relegation, his future was never in question. And having held on to Streich, with a new stadium under construction, and promotion looking possible, the future seems bright for the club from one of Germany’s sunniest cities.
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