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Marc Schnatterer has been playing for 1. FC Heidenheim since 2008 – promotion to the Bundesliga would be the culmination of his career
Credit: dpa / Tom Weller
Heidenheim plays in the relegation against Werder and can hardly believe it himself. The provincial club does a lot more right than the bigger competition. Marc Schnatterer is the symbol for this.
NOf course, he scored this goal on August 3, 2014. Who else should have made the first second division goal of 1. FC Heidenheim as Marc Schnatterer? The player who stands for this club like no other and now also for the second division.
The 1-0 win against FSV Frankfurt six years ago was the continuation of a success story that will be crowned in the next two games. As a major outsider in the relegation against Werder Bremen, Heidenheim is fighting for the first Bundesliga promotion in his club’s history. The first leg will take place on Thursday (8.30 p.m., DAZN and in the WELT live ticker) in Bremen, on Monday there will be a showdown in Heidenheim.
Schnatterer is a legend in the city of 49,000. In 2008 he moved from the second team of Karlsruher SC to Heidenheim and led the club from third to second division in 2014. There he set one record after the other. The 34-year-old was on the pitch in the club’s first 133 second division games, was directly involved in 36 percent of the 284 goals in the lower house and never missed a game due to a yellow or red ban.
“Maybe I’m just a second division player. I am someone who marches and fights, but who is also a bit technical technically. I can pull a team with me, ”said Schnatterer about himself before the start of the current season.
The trainer has been in office for 13 years
Last August, however, it was also not foreseeable that Heidenheim would play along for the promotion. With an estimated budget of 35 million, the club was a candidate for the table’s no man’s land. But Frank Schmidt’s team proved that they can play at the top without big names and big money.
The trainer is there even longer than Schnatterer. Schmidt, who was born 200 meters from the Heidenheimer Stadion, took over the team in 2007. He led the club from the Oberliga to the relegation against Werder. “For most, it’s a life chance. Some things happen frequently in life, some you never get or very rarely. We now have the situation of being allowed to do something very special, ”said Schmidt.
Frank Schmidt is the longest-serving coach in German professional football
Credit: dpa / Friso Gentsch
If his players use the chance of life, the 46-year-old has already issued an idiosyncratic party motto: “If we can make it into the Bundesliga, we can let the mosquitoes fly backwards.”
“The trainer can only fire himself”
Schmidt is a beneficial exception in the fast-moving professional business. He has been on the sidelines in Heidenheim for 13 years, making him the longest-serving coach in German professional football. “If you have been a trainer for so long, it is not enough just to be technically good. You also need social skills. I feel valued here, ”said Schmidt. The appreciation goes so far that club boss Holger Sanwald, who has been in charge in Heidenheim for 26 years, has given a job guarantee. “The trainer can only fire himself. There is a reason why he has been a coach with us for so long: because he has always produced success, ”said Sanwald.
Schnatterer (left) scored 48 goals for Heidenheim in the second division and gave 55 assists
Credit: dpa / Tom Weller
Schnatterer, Schmidt and Sanwald – these three men on three different people stand for the continuity of the club, which has gradually worked its way up. There was never the one patron who pumped a lot of money into the club. The natural growth is based on a pool of 500 small regional sponsors.
Heidenheim and Werder in comparison
Source: WORLD infographic
Even if Schnatterer has not been the defining figure on the pitch since this season, the midfielder is still extremely important for the team as the coach’s extended arm. “It is exemplary what Marc has done here”, says Schmidt about Schnatterer – and the possible ascent: “Before I wish it, I wish him. It would be the culmination of an incredible career. “
On the lawn, younger professionals have now taken over the game. In the storm Tim Kleindienst, who played a significant role in reaching the relegation with 14 goals, and in the head office Niklas Dorsch, who was trained at Bayern and who has set himself up this season to set the pace for the defensive game. With just 46 goals scored, the team didn’t really stand for spectacles this season, only Dresden and St. Pauli scored fewer goals. Nevertheless, it was enough for third place due to only 36 goals conceded and the enormous home strength.
“It is almost unbelievable what we have all achieved together. If you consider that theoretically there are still two games to go to the Bundesliga, it would be absolutely amazing, ”said Schmidt. And it would fit in with the history of the club if Schnatterer next Monday’s second leg in the second leg of the first FC in the second leg of the highest stadium in German professional football, at 555 meters, where opponents often run out of air in the last few minutes Heidenheim scored.
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