In an interview with Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, current Darmstadt head coach Florian Kohfeldt has spoken on his personal experiences during Werder Bremen’s 2020/21 Bundesliga relegation campaign. The now 43-year-old may be on the way back to the German top flight soon with his current Hessen-based club, but the heartbreak he endured with the organization for which he played and coached shall always remain with him.
Florian Kohfeldt’s love of Werder Bremen ran deep
Kohfeldt worked as a keeper for the Bremen reservers for eight years between 2001 and 2009. After his professional retirement, he coached various Werder youth teams before coaching the reserves himself and eventually rising to an assistant coaching position with the seniors. Following head coach Alexander Nouri’s dismissal in October 2017, the Siegen-native took over Werder as a head coach on an interim basis shortly after his 35th birthday.
Few gave the then complete unknown much of a chance at that time, but Kohfeldt managed to help Werder avoid relegation during the 2017/18 Bundesliga campaign. As a result, he earned various awards and accolades. For a time, Kohfeldt was considered one of the most promising young German coaches in all of football. His unexpected rise was nevertheless followed by a precipitous fall.
Bremen tanked hard during the 2019/20 campaign and were only able to avoid relegation to the 2. Bundesliga by beating 1. FC Heidenheim in the post-season promotion-relegation playoffs. The next year, despite terrible stretches of form, Bremen opted to stick with Kohfeldt after numerous club “crisis summits”. Patience with Kohfeldt finally ran out on the penultimate matchday of the season.
A brutal 12-match winless run in the league lead to Kohfeldt’s dismissal. Former Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf was unable to save Bremen from automatic relegation in the final game of the season. Kohfeldt himself coached Wolfsburg in the top flight the very next year. He also worked at KAS Eupen in Belgium the year after that. Both seven-month-stints were widely regarded as failures.
Kohfeldt’s career appeared to be over until Darmstadt took a chance on him last year.
Kohfeldt speaks on an “unhealthy” attachment to the club
“I had the greatest loyalty one can possibly conceive of to that club,” Kohfeldt said of his former station, who are once again fighting the drop. “I had maximum personal and emotional attachment. As a private individual, [the team’s failures] were the absolute worst thing that could have happened.
“I felt like I had to prove to everyone everywhere why I was allowed to work at the professional level,” Kohfeldt continued. “At Werder, I was 100,000 percent all-in, in everything. I wanted to defend that club as if I were the biggest ultra.
“After speaking to the team psychologist at the time, I realized that it wasn’t healthy,” Kohfeldt confessed. “I’m also all in at Darmstadt, but in a healthier way.“
Kohfeldt speaks on Bremen’s historically “ugly football” during last season
“I accepted the 2017/18 ‘Coach-of-the-Year’ award after one of Werder Bremen’s best seasons ever,” Kohfeldt recalled. “Then everything came crashing down two years. I got built up quickly and then things went in the opposite direction. I don’t like that, but have learned to live with it.
“I never liked the exaggerated way in which I was honored,” Kohfeldt continued. “I had a feeling that things might be blown out of proportion in the other direction quite quickly.”
“We had a clear internal discussion before the season, in which I said: ‘With this squad, it won’t be enough’,” Kohfeldt said of his last year. ”And then we decided on the most deliberately ugly football in the league. A deep seated 3-5-2 that had nothing to offer up front.
“That didn’t suit me,” Kohfeldt concluded. “In retrospect, I absolutely wouldn’t go that route again.“
