Czech Football in Germany: Freiburg Legend Laments Decline

He didn’t shine as a player, but he excelled even more as a coach. Thanks to him, a small regional club from the south-west of Germany appeared on the football map. In one of the poorer areas, it was difficult to get sponsorship money, so Volker Finke as a coach and actually also an unnamed manager and strategist came up with new ways to keep the club among the elite.

Although he did not prevent three relegations, he did not retire. Thanks to the quick returns, he was able to continue building the empire. So precisely for the club to establish itself firmly in the Bundesliga and play in European cups. There is also an analogy with today’s opponent from Pilsen.

What surprises you the most before the match? That Freiburg is second in the Europa League table, or that Pilsen is eighth?

I still haven’t come to like the new models of European competitions. So that there are no groups, in the Champions League and in the Europa League each team has eight different opponents and everything is counted in one table. This is confusing for me, so I can’t say if the second place for Freiburg is more valuable than the eighth for Pilsen. Who should know about it? Really. I see only one so far.

That UEFA just wanted to sell more matches. To televisions, i.e. to sponsors. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that most of what football organizations are doing now is leading to even more commercialization. So that even more money flows in, regardless of the sport itself. That’s why I ask: Does it have to be this way? Why is it all growing? After all, clubs employ, in fact they must employ, more and more players. Now, every team in the Bundesliga has around 30 to 35 footballers, it used to be between 18 and 25.

So is it all bad?

Probably not everything, but football is changing mainly under the influence of commerce and the media. It also depends on how the clubs deal with it. If they also want more matches, if they see meaning and benefit in it. Somewhere maybe economical. On the other hand, I am surprised that when someone finishes in the Champions League, they do not go to the Europa League and from there to the Conference.

If we can go back to Freiburg and Pilsen, are you surprised that two regional clubs are ranked so high?

Yes and no. Of course, I follow Freiburg’s matches. As upset as I was with the performance at home against Basel, despite a 2-1 win, I was even more pleased with the game last round when they won 3-1 in Nice after a great performance. After all, the French clubs have a really good level, that’s why it’s a beautiful business card for Freiburg. Of course, I noted that Plzeň also had a good start, they still haven’t lost, and the victory over AS Rome surprised, but also impressed.

How does Czech football sound in Germany?

I have always wondered where foreign players are recruited for the Bundesliga. Even today, it is interesting to see where the clubs scout the most, where they reach. When I came to Freiburg in the 1990s, we actually started it. Please, do you know off the top of your head how many players from the Czech Republic are currently playing in the Bundesliga?

Five, but at the beginning of the millennium there were up to four times more.

So that’s the difference. Well, that might actually be the answer to your question. When I trained in the Bundesliga, I remember Czech players from that time. There were indeed many of them. Now I can only think of Patrik Schick. When healthy, he scores a lot of goals and is in contention for the crown of the league’s top scorer.

What comes to mind when you hear Czech football?

The first thing that comes to mind is the then UEFA Cup and the match with Slavia. That was something quite special for such a small club as Freiburg. At the beginning of my tenure, the president told me: Our only goal is to try to stay in the second league. And it succeeded. The next year we advanced to the Bundesliga, saved ourselves again, and then something happened that no one expected. We finished third, that’s why we were able to play in the UEFA Cup. The first match is against Slavia. Czech football has lost its importance, but for me it is still the biggest of the smaller or medium-sized ones, behind you I would see Poland, Hungary and Croatia at the club level. You are the best of Germany’s eastern neighbors. Better than Austria for me.

Which of the Czech footballers made the biggest impression on you?

Formerly Jan Koller. Not just because he was so big. I’m sorry, I don’t watch Czech football much anymore. In addition, almost every player has an agent or other representative, they offer him to clubs. Which is a completely different system than thirty years ago, when I had a better overview of European and Czech players, because they were more affordable for us. I remember that Viktoria Plzeň is the most successful Czech club in the last ten years, both in terms of domestic titles and starts in the Champions League. But if you ask me about African football, I will give you much more detailed information. I still maintain my contacts there and am often asked for advice or help regarding players from Africa.

What is it like in the heads of German footballers? Can they underestimate the weaker Czech opponent on paper?

I don’t think anyone from Freiburg will underestimate Pilsen. By no means. Freiburg is still not in a position to play the giants. Moreover, he has never spent as much money on summer transfers as he did this year. Almost 33 million euros is an incredible number by his standards. That’s why everyone feels responsible, and that’s how they approach it. Always at full capacity, despite the fact that the squad has become significantly younger with the arrival of players from the academy. Thanks to this, he gained new energy, and young people simply do not allow themselves to let something go.

How did you defend yourself from underestimating your opponent?

Simply. I always reminded the players that we are not the big ones who can afford something like this. Not even in the Bundesliga, let alone in European cups. I noticed that the underestimation occurs mainly with big teams from England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. When they come up against the smaller ones, the players think that it will go away by itself. Then there are five other countries according to performance, and I also rank clubs from the Czech Republic there. They tend to be especially motivated and excited when they can knock someone out of the top five. This makes football so interesting for fans that sometimes “wildness” happens in the form of a surprising result. I’ll just repeat the perhaps clichéd phrase that today there are no longer the very small ones. Sure, it will probably never happen that a Luxembourg club goes all the way to the semi-finals in European cups. It just doesn’t work.

There is a third group in club football, sometimes called midgets. If they beat someone from the other group, fine, but…

Okay, maybe I’ll correct it a bit on the case of little Freiburg. We have won all three home games against Bayern in the last three years. And that’s where another motivation is sought. That’s why I think that the match against the German club will also be a challenge for Pilsen, even if it is only a relatively “small” Freiburg. I can imagine that in the heads of the Czech players something like: If I win this match, maybe it will open the door to the Bundesliga.

What does the current SC Freiburg honor?

In addition to ambitious youth, also stability. It started to form already under the previous long-time coach Christian Streich, who brought in players such as Christian Günter, who became the captain, or Nicolas Höfler. I appreciate the generational change where more and more youngsters are becoming key players and there is interest in the Premier League from the information available. And that is already an excellent calling card for a club like Freiburg.

However, some young people from Freiburg have already left. You’ve always resisted it, haven’t you?

Even so, it can be said. I have always told the players: Until the age of 25, you have to play where you grow up, where you become a player of the starting eleven and keep developing. Only then can you look around to see if there would be a place for you in a bigger club. That’s why I always wanted to keep them. One should not look for big money at the beginning.

How do you actually remember the match with Slavia in 1995, which was also Freiburg’s premiere in European cups?

I still have it in my head and I will have it there for the rest of my life. I was even annoyed by it because I thought it came too soon.

We were not yet fully prepared for something like this. Moreover, in the two-match system at the time, we paid for inexperience. But on our second start in the cups five years later, we progressed to the third round, where we were unhappily eliminated by Feyenoord Rotterdam, who beat Borussia Dortmund in the final.

Was that one of your coaching milestones?

Sure. Also because we knew that Slavia had and has an interesting history. At that time, she was doing well, which she did not only against us, but then she advanced to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup. And I remember one interesting thing. At that time, we had a masseur in the implementation team who came from the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the name.

Yes, that sounds familiar. I asked him for all the possible telephone numbers of people not only in the Czech Republic, in order to get as much information as possible about Slavia. Back then it didn’t work like it does now, when you can find everything on the Internet. That’s why I looked for recordings of Slavia matches from the domestic league, had newspaper articles translated. It was very close and we progressed at home when we lost 1:2. And I will admit even years later that Slavia surprised us.