There are many personalities in the Golden Book of the city of Münster. To name just a few: Konrad Adenauer, Angela Merkel, Queen Elizabeth II, Charles and Diana, the Dalai Lama and the Münster crime scene investigators Axel Prahl and Jan Josef Liefers. Sascha Hildmann feels extremely honored that his signature has now also been immortalized in such an illustrious circle since his promotion and town hall reception four months ago.
Hildmann, 51, is the coach of third division newcomer SC Preußen Münster. This Tuesday (8:45 p.m., ZDF) the Prussians will host FC Bayern in the rescheduled first round game in the DFB Cup. Thomas Tuchel, Harry Kane, Joshua Kimmich, Thomas Müller? None of them are in the Golden Book of Münster.
The city has many beautiful corners: the Prinzipalmarkt, the cathedral, the Aasee. However, apart from the Preußen Stadium, Hildmann is more likely to be found on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. He always has his fishing rod in the trunk. The canal has very clean water (Hildmann: “quality class 2”) and a large variety of fish. Zander and bream are preferably filleted and prepared on the roof terrace at home.
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A Palatine in Westphalia: Prussia coach Sascha Hildmann.
(Photo: Andreas Schlichter/Getty Images)
You wouldn’t expect someone from the Palatinate in Westphalia to enjoy fishing there. But do you expect someone from Kaiserslautern in Münster to fulfill the longings of a city that is a bit neglected in terms of football? Only experts can answer this question in the affirmative, because only they know that before Hildmann it was a Kaiserslauterner who led the greatest success of Münster football: Richard Schneider (1919-1982) was Prussia coach from 1961 to 1966, that is also in the Bundesliga’s founding season in 1963/64, when the Münster team played their only year in the top league. With five years of service, Schneider is still Prussia’s record coach. Hildmann enters its fifth year on December 27th. He could replace Schneider in 15 months.
However, Hildmann is only marginally interested in this record at the moment, and even the cup clash, as exciting as it may be for the city, is not as important for the future of the club as the upcoming third division basement games against table neighbors MSV Duisburg, Hallescher FC and 1860 Munich. It is groundbreaking about Münster’s most important goal: staying in the league.
Sports director Peter Niemeyer maintains a happy Whatsapp group with Marco Rose, Steffen Baumgart and Thomas Reis
The goalkeeper Maximilian Schulze Niehues, captain Marc Lorenz, defense chief Thomas Kok and striker Gerrit Wegkamp with his 22 goals from last season – many of the promotion heroes have remained on board. There were also players like striker Malik Batmaz from Karlsruher SC, midfielder Rico Preißinger from FC Ingolstadt and six-man Luca Bazzoli from VfB Stuttgart II. Prussia’s sports director Peter Niemeyer is well connected, as is Hildmann. He got his coaching license in 2015 in a course with Marco Rose, Steffen Baumgart, Thomas Reis and Florian Kohfeldt. To this day there is a happy Whatsapp group.
The Prussians and Bayern have never met in the Bundesliga because the Münster team was relegated in 1964 and the Munich team was only promoted in 1965. There have only been two meetings so far. In January 1994, Bayern won a friendly against Münster 7-0, and in August 2014 they won the DFB Cup first round game in Münster 4-1. Bayern coach at the time: Pep Guardiola.
Coach Hildmann would have preferred the game at the start of the season because of the atmosphere – and “because Harry Kane wasn’t at Bayern at the time.”
Hildmann is, so to speak, humble and combative when he says: “Bayern have a brutal quality, but we will not freeze in awe.” The game is “something special, the whole of Münster is happy” and it could also have a positive effect on the league for his Prussians. “You can grow from something like that.”
Hildmann finds the fact that the Münster team had to wait three months for this game since the draw in June because Bayern played the Supercup against RB Leipzig in mid-August to be suboptimal for two reasons: “Because we would have preferred that as a game at the start of the season – and because Harry Kane wasn’t at Bayern at the time.” That may be a sporting argument, but the Münster spectators will certainly find it very attractive to see the Englishman live in the Prussian Stadium.
More than 500 people have become club members specifically to increase their chances of getting a ticket. The Prussians could have sold more than 30,000 tickets for the cup game, but their old stadium, built in 1926, currently only offers 12,794 seats due to a gradual renovation. Everything should be finished in 2027. “Then,” said supervisory board boss Frank Westermann to the local newspaper Westfälische Nachrichten, “Bayern can come back again.” Meanwhile, Hildmann has higher ambitions: “With the new stadium, the second league should be the goal at some point.”
