Marco Richter does not have the exact positions in his head. But what he does know is that since he made his Bundesliga debut in October 2017, his teams have always been concerned with remaining in the league. With FC Augsburg he mastered the challenges mainly in 15th place in the table, with Hertha BSC he was saved once in the relegation and last season he was relegated.
“It would be my little dream to experience a year without a relegation battle,” he says. He wants to fulfill this dream with FSV Mainz 05, he committed himself to Rheinhessen this week until the summer of 2027. “I was very happy that it came about.” The hope that a change to Bruchweg could be realized, Richter had almost given up. Although he knew that Mainz was interested, their sports director Martin Schmidt, once his coach in Augsburg, had signaled that the exit clause in Richter’s Berlin contract provided for a transfer fee that was too high.
A utopian 23 million euros were rumored, “but the people of Mainz drove the amount down. And when the door opened a bit, they went full throttle,” he says. Ultimately, a little more than three million euros flowed, four less than the capital city club had spent on judges two years ago. “In the end, it went from zero to one hundred in a few hours.”
The efforts of those responsible in Berlin to keep him came to nothing. “They didn’t leave me alone because they thought I’d go with them,” says Richter. Coach Pal Dardai had even made him captain. Nevertheless, he never concealed his desire to return to the first division as quickly as possible.
Then FSV Mainz 05 got in touch. The contact with Schmidt was never broken anyway, after a three-quarter-hour conversation about the common past, God and the world, he felt a positive gut feeling. A day later, an “outstanding phone call” followed with coach Bo Svensson. “I was hooked right away,” says Richter, “after that I didn’t have a plan B anymore. I just wanted to go to Mainz.”
There, in turn, there was a need for action after the club had given up Marcus Ingvartsen, Marlon Mustapha and Delano Burgzorg. Since the long-term injured Jonathan Burkardt is not expected to return until October at the earliest, Svensson only had three experienced attacking players in Karim Onisiwo, Jae-sung Lee and Ludovic Ajorque plus the young professionals Nelson Weiper and Brajan Gruda.
Follow-up examinations without new findings
“Marco fits our profile perfectly,” says Svensson, which on the one hand refers to the routine. Leaving aside Onisiwo, Richter has almost as much experience as all Mainz strikers combined with 157 Bundesliga appearances. The coach also praises his diligence and mentality.
Marco Richter is a fighter, someone who bites, who doesn’t give up. Also in real life, where he developed testicular cancer during his first year in Berlin. “The time after the diagnosis was very difficult, I’m very grateful to Hertha for giving me all the time in the world,” he says. “Fortunately, the follow-up examinations didn’t come up with any new findings.” But I’ve definitely become more humble and grateful.”
Shots from the second row
On the pitch, Richter is someone who doesn’t give up until the end of a football game. With his physique, his intensity, his willingness to run – he usually covers more than eleven kilometers within 90 minutes, many of them in sprints – that fits the Mainz approach.
He will hardly be able to remedy the speed deficit of the 05 offensive despite the fast first meters, but he is ahead of Jae-sung Lee in terms of speed. Left half-forward could be the position Svensson prefers to use him in, provided the coach sticks to his 3-4-2-1 formation. In this role, Richter could showcase one of his greatest strengths: second-line shots.
Ralf Weitbrecht, Frankfurt Published/Updated: , Peter H. Eisenhuth, Mainz Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 1 Peter H. Eisenhuth Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 1
“Behind the peaks” is what he calls his favorite position, but all too often he has not been able to get a chance there in his career so far. “I can count that on one hand. I almost always came from the outside” – also okay, from there he could also pull inwards and cause danger because he is strong on both feet. Under Sandro Schwarz he had to give up right-back for a short time, but that didn’t excite him. Of course it’s still better than during Felix Magath’s rescue mission in the season before last: “I didn’t play that much with him, but I didn’t get an explanation for it either…”
Not that he can’t do defensive work, says Richter, he learned that in Martin Schmidt’s Augsburg year. “But I was happy that Bo Svensson only spoke about the offensive positions in which he sees me.”
It is unlikely that those responsible in Mainz thought of signing the 25-year-old before the second matchday – but Frankfurt’s Eintracht, who went to Rhein-Main on Sunday afternoon (3:30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on DAZN). -Duell arrives, describes Richter as his favorite opponent. He scored his first Bundesliga goal in February 2018 against the Hessians, and a year later he even scored two goals against them. “With a side kick.” And when he scored for the first time almost two years ago as a Herthaner, it was again against Eintracht.
