FAs a player, elix Magath helped Hamburger SV achieve their biggest club triumph when he scored the 1-0 win against Juventus Turin in the final of the Landesmeistercup in May 1983. After that he had a successful coaching career, now he is waiting for new job offers. He sometimes uses the time for daring share purchases.
Ask: Mr. Magath, would Borussia Dortmund become German champions this season with ex-striker Erling Haaland, who switched to Manchester City in the summer of 2022?
Felix Magath (69): The probability would be very high. An Erling Haaland is greedy for goals, so he guarantees them. He can only be stopped with injuries. He has incredible will. But he is now showing that for Manchester City.
Ask: Dortmund was one point ahead of FC Bayern before the 30th matchday. With a 1:1 draw at relegation candidates VfL Bochum, the lead in the table was lost again.
Magath: Certainly much to the annoyance of the BVB fans, but I’m just as annoyed. I’m currently not a Bundesliga coach. That’s why I bought shares in Borussia Dortmund before the Bochum game. That could cost me money now if BVB doesn’t win the championship. Because if you win the title, the mood would be better and the price would rise.
Ask: In Bochum, referee Sascha Stegemann denied BVB a clear penalty. Do you understand the Dortmund protests?
Magath: As a coach, I would have been upset too, because it was clearly a wrong decision. But as someone who is interested in football, I come to the realization: How many mistakes did the Dortmund team make during the game? Certainly more than the referee. BVB had 90 minutes to win the game. Also, I resist…
Ask: Against what?
Magath: … now only picking out such a scene with one team and trivializing the other numerous wrong decisions that other teams like FC Augsburg or SC Freiburg, for example, have to accept.
Ask: It’s been years since there was such an exciting championship fight in the Bundesliga. What is important in the final sprint?
Magath: You have to be very careful. There are always surprising results in the final sprint. There are teams that don’t care about anything anymore and suddenly they play big. For other teams, it’s also about nothing – and then they do less because the season is almost over for them. Others have their backs to the wall, fight like lions and get surprising results. That’s why it’s exciting.
Ask: Is it also because FC Bayern gave up their top scorer in Robert Lewandowski last year and his replacement Sadio Mané, who is a different type of player, disappointed?
Magath: FC Bayern was well-established with Lewandowski for years and always guaranteed goals. If a player like that breaks away, there is a risk. I experienced it myself as an HSV player in 1983 when we lost the strikers Horst Hrubesch and Lars Bastrup from our top team. Winning the title that year was also the last German championship that HSV celebrated. Basically, the whole offensive game at Bayern had to be redesigned. Because a Haaland was not available.
Ask: What other reasons are there why FC Bayern is not as dominant as in previous years?
Magath: It surprises me that the cause is primarily sought in the composition of the squad. Because until a few weeks and months ago, it was said: FC Bayern did great shopping. They are the best Bavarians that have ever existed. If the squad was so good to knock Paris out of the Champions League then I don’t know why it should be so bad now? The reasons must lie elsewhere.
Ask: Where do you see the reasons?
Magath: After the World Cup break, FC Bayern lost ten points to Dortmund in the first few weeks of 2023. That didn’t happen under Thomas Tuchel.
Ask: But under ex-coach Julian Nagelsmann, from whom Bayern parted at the end of March.
Magath: It’s clear that something went wrong after the winter break. There were difficulties keeping the team happy. In addition, there is the injury-related absence of Manuel Neuer, a real leading player, without him Germany would not have been world champion in 2014 and FC Bayern would not have been German champions ten times in a row. For me, the team wasn’t managed well enough and after the World Cup – seen from the outside – they didn’t have the necessary fitness and discipline.
Ask: Did Nagelsmann underestimate the job at Bayern?
Magath: The sentence has been repeated many times – and Uli Hoeneß has the copyright to it: “If someone goes to FC Bayern, then he must know what he did.” And the last coach before Thomas Tuchel signed didn’t have 100 percent internalized what he did when he went to Bayern.
Ask: Why?
Magath: He’s young, he apparently believed: Hoffenheim, Leipzig and Bayern are all in one league. But that’s not the case. Bayern is firmly established in world football. That’s why the approach was not appropriate for the club and the situation.
Ask: And Thomas Tuchel?
Magath: He is different. I am not one who adores Thomas Tuchel. I only judge what comes out in the end. And Tuchel has proven that he can work successfully in big clubs.
Ask: Were you surprised that Uli Hoeneß paid a visit to training before the 2-0 win against Hertha Tuchel and had a lengthy conversation with him?
Magath: Anyone who thinks that Uli Hoeneß has nothing to do with FC Bayern after his departure knows now at the latest that this is not the case. It was as clear as day that he couldn’t let go of his Bavarians.
Ask: Will BVB fail due to the high pressure of expectations? Dortmund only drew in the second half of the season against the children from the basement, Schalke and Stuttgart, and gave away valuable points.
Magath: Dortmund just don’t have that “mia san mia” of Bayern. Even if they said last: We want to be German champions. It doesn’t really come from within. They decided to set an example after not winning in Stuttgart. Let’s take Julian Brandt as an example: Of course he played much better in the second half of the season than before.
Ask: But?
Magath: Somehow the conviction that his mentality has changed is missing. All right, Sebastian Kehl (BVB sports director, the editors) recently played a good role, as he said. It is therefore possible that he will bring a new mentality to BVB for the future. But after last weekend, I still don’t think BVB will be German champions this year.
Ask: But many in Germany are longing for another German champion after Bayern’s long-standing dominance.
Magath: We would all be happy if that happened. I think some of the Bayern fans myself. It would be good for the attractiveness of the Bundesliga if that happened.
Ask: Bayern regained the lead in the table by beating Hertha and are one point ahead of BVB with four games to go. Will Munich become champions again?
Magath: FC Bayern have the best individual players in the league in their team and should now be able to win all games.
Ask: What significance would winning the title have for Bayern’s CEO Oliver Kahn, who has come under heavy criticism? Should he fear for his job?
Magath: It is difficult for FC Bayern to have to replace Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeneß in quick succession. Both have led and represented the club for decades. Both are not one-to-one substitutes. In this respect, FC Bayern managed this transition phase well for a long time. Now there seems to be internal unrest. But I assume…
Ask: About what?
Magath: … that this restlessness has calmed down again by the end of the season, that the balloons rise into the sky at the victory celebration on the balcony of Munich City Hall and then everything is fine again.
The interview was managed for the sports competence center (WELT, SPORT BILD, BILD) and first published in SPORT BILD.
