René Klingbeil’s time at the FCC is over. Will he now be a teacher in Eilenburg?
Photo: imago/Steffen Beyer
When my long-time favorite coach Hans Meyer was removed from the coaching chair at FC Carl Zeiss Jena in the fall of 1983, it was as if an evil djinn had amputated the index finger of my left hand. Twelve years of Meyer had left their mark on my fan biography. He made it to the European Cup final with Jena in 1981, only to be destroyed by the unpopular Russians from Tbilisi. Of course, we also knew in Thuringia that Tiblissi, as the city was called in the “New Football Week,” was not in Russia, but in the Soviet Union. Georgians, Kazakhs or Latvians: for us zone urchins, they were all Russians. Tiblissi went by the fucking first name Dinamo. Even worse: a shitty cop club.
In any case, Meyers Kopp rolled after he had put us in second-to-last place in the league. As a punishment he had to spend three years in Erfurt. He didn’t care, he was a coach by profession and wanted to keep attacking. Because there weren’t many top trainers in the GDR’s planned economy, he found the new job quickly. Meyer has never been unemployed for more than a few months in his career. He was lucky: When things were going badly for him in the 90s and ex-GDR grinders were worthless, the old sergeant with charm took a secret route via Holland to late Bundesliga fortune.
Ballhaus East
Photo: Anne Hahn
Frank Willman looks at the football between Leipzig, Łódź and Ljubljana.
Shortly before New Year’s Eve 2023, coach René Klingbeil in Jena and his staff were fired. With a lot of unpleasant background noise – almost Bundesliga-like, like in real football. Klingbeil skillfully explained how he was thrown out; the market demands submissive behavior even in the lowlands, where it’s all about small change. Coaching positions are rare and the battle of interests is fierce. If Kingbeil is out for a longer period of time, he can take the second educational path to become a sports teacher at a comprehensive school. Nothing against sports teachers, mine in Weimar was the best ever. And many comprehensive school teachers earn more money than, for example, a football coach in Eilenburg. So why not a comprehensive school teacher in Eilenburg instead of a trainer in Jena? Because a little Mr. Klingbeil also dreams of big football, so he neglects his family, gets annoyed by untalented players and gets insulted by bratwurst dealers on the board. Such are the rules of business.
Christian Benbennek was the coach of BFC Dynamo until June 2022, and he was allowed to try his luck there for three years. Ultimately he failed to gain promotion to the 3rd league. And fell into the abyss of oblivion. During his three years in Berlin he grew a year older every month. The job ate away at him, gnawed away all his coaching beauty, it was frightening to see.
I like to think back to my time as coach of the national authors team. We hung on the DFB feeding bottle for a while. I was very fond of the beautiful Moritz, a goal-getter who had aged without dignity. In Vienna I didn’t want to bring him until half time. Before the game he sang and whistled: the director of the Burgtheater was coming and he couldn’t possibly be substituted. I idiot of a coach let it happen. Naturally, he didn’t hit the goal. Did Lebbe move on? Yes.
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