"Divine Gift" Sandro Wagner tempers expectations ahead of Regionalliga head-coaching debut
The suburban Bavarian village of Unterhaching entertained several dozen journalists during a Tuesday presser ahead of its football club's season opener against TSV Aubstadt in the Bayern Regionalliga.
A recently relegated fourth-tier German footballing side obviously would not attract so much attention were it not for a celebrity savior at the helm.
Originally slated to take over the reconstituted U19s, popular former Bundesliga striker Sandro Wagner found himself the recipient of an unexpected promotion two short weeks ago. One could say that the 33-year-old's coaching career is off to the best possible start. Six days into his first professional gig, Wagner was elevated to the head-coaching job at SpVgg Unterhaching.
A recently relegated fourth-tier German footballing side obviously would not attract so much attention were it not for a celebrity savior at the helm.
Wagner's brief work as a television pundit on German streaming service DAZN (and later ZDF during the European Championship) increased his already advanced celebrity. For club boss Manfred Schwabl, the choice to move him up to the position of the senior side gaffer was obvious.
"He was practically placed on our doorstep by the Christ Child," Schwabl recently told a cadre of interested journalists, referencing the south German fictional entity responsible for delivering children presents on Christmas Eve, "My heart soars when I see how he works with the youngsters."
Schwabe also expressed the hope Wagner could evolve into a provincial Jürgen Klopp, though the former Bayern, Bremen, Hertha, and Hoffenheim striker was having none of the comparisons.
"I'd like 0.0 percent comparison with other coaches," the journeyman striker noted. He then invoked his famously confident independent streak to claim that, as a player, he learned from all the various trainers he severed under. Wagner elicited a few chuckles by claiming to have gained something from both "the good ones and the blind ones."
In discussing his unexpected promotion, Wagner sought to dampen expectations and noted that there were still some bridges to be built with his players. Unterhaching's relegation from the third footballing tier at the end of last season obviously meant a large wave of departures. Most players left and a great deal of the club's staff were made redundant after the team slipped out of Germany's lowest fully professional footballing division.
"The roadmap for a return to Bundesliga Three is a 24-month project," Wagner said, "If the expectation was that we had to go up this year or it's over, I wouldn't have gone along."
"There are still negative emotions," Wagner answered when asked about the dismissal of previous coach Arie van Lent on June 30th, "I've had many individual and group discussions. We've put everything out there."
Expectations are certainly nevertheless high for a figure of Wagner's fame. Schwabl's glowing comments would appear to suggest that he hoped Wagner could return the club to its glory days, when Haching became one of the smallest towns ever to reach the top-tier of German football between 1999 and 2001.
As a testament to how far there is yet to be travelled, Wagner had to answer questions about the squad's trip to Aubstadt (population approximately 700) for the Regionalliga Bayern season opener.
"I've watched all that videos on TSV Aubstadt that are available on the Internet," Wagner said when asked about his preparation, "I know every player and in some cases the players' siblings. I'm hyped and psyched for this task, but I also have a huge amount of respect and humility."