Alex Meier’s coaching career is slowly getting serious. The 43-year-old football idol from Frankfurt Eintracht has made the step from apprentice to journeyman since the summer. For four years he had previously gained experience as a training observer, assistant to various youth teams and the responsible coach of the U16s in order to learn the job from the ground up. Then he felt ready for a bigger task – an impression that Eintracht certainly shared.
All Alex Meier is missing for the Bundesliga is a coaching license
Meier’s assessment of the first half of the year is positive, for his development and for that of his players. Results aren’t everything, the main goal is to introduce as many players as possible to the professionals. “It’s no use becoming champions and winning the Champions League and you can’t get any of your boys up there.”
His goal is to keep getting better himself. In October, the North German passed his exam for the A license. With her he can look after all teams in youth performance centers, men’s teams up to and including the regional league and women’s teams up to and including the second Bundesliga.
So all he needs is a coaching license, the so-called pro license, in order to take over a team in the Bundesliga. “I definitely want to become a football teacher,” says Meier. But not because he is consistently and purposefully aiming for a world career as a trainer, but rather to continue his education and get the best out of himself.
His desire for fame and honor is limited in space: “I actually never want to leave Eintracht,” he says and specifies: “It’s been my club since I’ve been here, and the people have grown on me. I already describe myself as a Frankfurter, even though I only came here when I was twenty, and I describe myself as an Eintracht member without having a guilty conscience. I think everyone accepts that too.”
With this commitment, Alex Meier is pretty specific when choosing his jobs. But he doesn’t want to change what he enjoys. “I go into every training session with great joy.” He also made many friends and good acquaintances at Eintracht. “I knew from the start that I would basically like the coaching job. But I didn’t know how good I was and whether I would want to be responsible for a team every day in the long term.”
After six months it is clear: Meier wants to. And it has been well received – by the players and the management of the youth center. “We laugh a lot,” says Meier about his relationship with his boys. “They keep me young.” In the conversation it is repeatedly expressed that the former professional, on the one hand, demands hard and consistent work, but on the other hand, he understands his boys’ weaknesses. “We must never forget that they are not adults, but young people. They have nonsense in their heads, that’s completely normal. You shouldn’t take everything too seriously.”
Disco and girls or football and training
When dealing with his players, Meier does not follow a sophisticated concept. “I don’t act consciously about how much closeness I allow or how much distance I demand. I am who I am and behave that way. I think I have a good relationship with everyone, the boys can come to me with anything. But I can’t always respond to the individual, it has to be fair for everyone, I have to keep the group in balance.”
Meier is not one of those coaches who complains that their boys are too comfortable or have a lack of motivation to perform. “Nothing has changed since I was in the youth center. Some took it very seriously, and for some, disco and girls were more important. But for today’s players it has become harder because they have been in school for a lot longer.”
Meier sees it as one of his main tasks to develop the personality of his players: modesty, politeness, ambition, willingness to perform. “We have to be so honest that most of them won’t make it into the professional level, I also want to give those people something for their life that they can use outside of football.”
As much as Meier supports the talent, he is aware that there are limits. “At Eintracht we have a plan of how we want to develop the players, and I have my vision of how I can bring the boys through. But in the end it’s up to the player how far he goes. How much talent does he have, how much is he willing to work? We can’t make everyone who arrives here a professional through good training.”
“I couldn’t sleep for two nights”
Meier, who is considered a “football god” by many Eintracht fans, also has to accept the limits of his work in other respects. At the end of November, his team lost 8-0 to the Greuther Fürth game association in the DFB youth round. Eintracht won the first leg 4-1.
“That was the only game in my coaching career so far after which I couldn’t sleep for two nights. Because I just couldn’t find an explanation as to why we were so bad that day.” In fact, such a result is incomprehensible when there is enough quality in the team to face teams like Liverpool, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid and Bergamo on equal terms in the Youth League.
Meier says: “Even if the 8-0 defeat hurts a lot, it was good to see that the right attitude is needed not only against Liverpool, but also in everyday league life on a small artificial turf pitch. That’s the hardest thing, teaching the boys that they always have to give their all.” However, the trainer readily admits that “the bigger the tasks are, the more fun it is for me.”
Meier admits that it is the adrenaline rush when entering a sold-out stadium, with the cheers of his own fans or the whistles of the opponents, what he misses most after his playing career. As a coach, Alex Meier doesn’t need the big stage: “I’ve just acquired my A license, I feel very comfortable with the U19s and can develop further here. When the time comes, the next steps will come.”
