Andreas Luthe is currently in the stress of moving, but a conversation over the hands-free system in a car can also revolve around fundamental football topics. At least when they were the decisive factor in why the future first-choice goalkeeper of 1. FC Kaiserslautern ended up at Betzenberg in the first place: “For me as a player, the people you meet every day make a football club. Those are the points of contact with the club.” , says Luthe, while the click-click of the turn signal can be heard in the background. “You can work sensibly with many clubs in the first and second leagues,” he says, “but there’s also the other component: being rooted in the city and region. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who notices the impact FCK has. “
Luthe, 35, was socialized at VfL Bochum for 15 years, after which he played four years at FC Augsburg and most recently two at Union Berlin – all of which are family-run traditional clubs. Incidentally, Luthe offensively defends the fact that he also mentions FCA in the same breath as the fan magnets from Köpenick and the Palatinate “K-Town”: “Augsburg is often lumped together with the new constructs of football. I don’t think that’s just because wrong in FCA history, but also because the club is the ultimate in the city and actually in all of Bavarian Swabia.”
You can also hear the subtle sarcasm with which Luthe speaks about “modern football” – this proves definitively that the choice of his workplace was no coincidence. Luthe likes the atmosphere in the home stadium and he likes it when he is wished good luck for the next game on a trip to the surrounding area. He sees it that way, although he knows that tradition alone is not enough as a factor: “The successes of the past do not mean that you tear anything,” he emphasizes, “RB (Leipzig) and Hoffenheim have certainly done some things right, but also with quite a bit of monetary power. That’s modern football.”
So it’s a good thing that FCK will open the new second division season this Friday (8.30 p.m.) against Hannover 96 – a duel that is so much to the liking of traditionalist Luthe. There will be quite a crowded away crowd and a full home stand. The latter will probably also be the case in the other 16 FCK home games, because after promotion, the Palatinate have already sold more than 17,000 season tickets. Luthe can enjoy all of that on Friday, after all he’s wearing the right goalkeeper jersey for the first time at “Betze”: “I’ve fought a lot of battles here, but I’ve always been in the other goal and had to try to block out the atmosphere. That’s why I’m really looking forward to the game. Especially since I believe that this atmosphere can still release something.”
They expect up to 40,000 spectators at FCK, the last three home games in the third division were even sold out with 49,000 fans each. Just as many people fit into the stadium of opponent Hannover, but there were only 14,100 on average. And that’s not the only difference between the two traditional clubs: here the Lower Saxony, who work year after year with huge financial effort to return to the first division – and last season stayed in the league with alas. There the FCK, whose appendage has learned some modesty after a long four years in the third division. At least that’s what the new keeper Luthe hopes: “You have to see the second division as a gift that you can’t gamble away again. Everyone has to fight for it every day.”
Also new to Kaiserslautern is Erik Durm, a 2014 World Champion
Dirk Schuster, who only took over the coaching position in Kaiserslautern in May and lifted FCK into the second division in two relegation games against Dresden, puts it almost identically. Under his direction, the Palatinate have operated a personnel policy against the league trend since promotion. While most second division clubs were rejuvenating their squads, Schuster and sporting director Thomas Hengen were putting their faith in additional routine for a squad that would have been one of the oldest in the league anyway. FCK regular players like the re-elected captain Jean Zimmer, 28, Hendrik Zuck, 31, Terence Boyd, 31, Kevin Kraus, 29, or Mike Wunderlich, 36, are older. Now Luthe, 35, attacker Ben Zolinski, 30, and Erik Durm, 30, have been added.
Durm was in Joachim Löw’s world champion squad in Brazil in 2014. As a native of Pirmasens, he credibly gives evidence of his anticipation of games in FCK dress. Only Lex-Tyger Lobinger, son of the former world-class pole vaulter Tim Lobinger, is among the younger 23-year-olds who joined. However, all newcomers can be trusted to increase the quality of play in a squad that rose last season with a lot of struggle and a bit of luck.
Like many others at FCK, Andreas Luthe could well imagine that in the medium term first division football could be seen again on the Betzenberg. Provided that Lautern survives the toughest season that is now beginning for a long time without major turbulence.
