It’s not that easy to kill two birds with one stone, and we’ve been able to talk to those responsible at Hertha BSC about it since Thursday. On Thursday they sent their lawyer Johan-Michel Menke into the trial with their former Norwegian goalkeeper Rune Jarstein. The aim was to make him a severance payment of 250,000 euros, which would have amounted to almost half of the outstanding salary payments. Jarstein, 38, was fired in November 2022. He had been accused of badly insulting Hertha’s goalkeeping coach Andreas Menger.
In the end, the court came up with a compromise proposal that will cost Hertha 350,000 euros in compensation if it is accepted by the parties. But the real story was different: the story of the two flies that were missed.
This is mainly based on the statements made by Jarstein’s lawyer Horst Kletke; they were basically confirmed by Hertha’s lawyer. According to Kletke, only Hertha President Kay Bernstein and then Managing Director Thomas E. Herrich contacted Jarstein’s advisor last week. They are said to have suggested that the Norwegian settle the legal dispute out of court, pay him the outstanding salary, give him an honorable farewell at the stadium one day and – most importantly – reinstate him. And that’s despite the fact that he hasn’t played since last year.
Hertha will soon see herself in court again with Bobic
But Hertha could have gotten rid of another problem if Jarstein had been hired and replaced Marius Gersbeck. The goalkeeper has been suspended since a brawl at the training camp last July and will appear in court in Austria at the end of September for grievous bodily harm. If he is convicted, he will have to fear for his job. The turning point in the Jarstein case followed on Tuesday: Hertha withdrew the offer. Said Kletke – and rejected the 250,000 euros initially offered by Hertha as compensation.
Now, among other things, a crop damage is to be assessed. On the one hand, Gersbeck now knows that Hertha was pursuing a plan B, after it had previously been considered certain that Bernstein would support Gersbeck’s pardon. If Jarstein had accepted, it would also have been interesting to see whether the Norwegian and goalkeeper coach Menger would have found each other again. Jarstein was fired because he is said to have called Menger a “liar”, “asshole” and “incompetent” at a crisis meeting with managing director Fredi Bobic. Jarstein, meanwhile, claims to have only expressed “factual” criticism, so he insisted on paying the outstanding salary of 490,000 euros.
Although Hertha’s lawyer asked for evidence to be taken, the judge showed no interest in that. Because it would have been interesting for Hertha to lose with such evidence. In any case, Hertha’s lawyer pointed out that Bobic would have to be assumed to have operated with false information if it turned out that Jarstein was telling the truth. As I said, two birds: Because even with Bobic, Hertha will soon be back in court. The dismissal of the managing director was justified, among other things, with allegedly damaging behavior.
Also interesting: Hertha’s lawyer tried to schedule the verdict as late as possible and was granted October 12th, i.e. after the proceedings against Gersbeck. Should he then have a criminal record, Hertha would have a few days to convince Jarstein of a comeback.
