The ‘One Club Man’ of banks

In these times of instant results, where sponsors demand results to highlight their brand, clubs and fans often suffer from impatience. That’s why it’s hard to find coaches who, Sunday after Sunday, continue to sit in their seat on the same team’s bench season after season even if the ball doesn’t go into the opposing goal.

Frank Schmidt (3/1/1974 – Heidenheim an der Brenz, Germany) is a ‘rara avis’ of football, one of a kind that is rare due to the required mandate of results. He is a coach who shows a positive attitude, loves his players to be competitive and, sarcastically, says he doesn’t take football too seriously. Well, to ignore football, he is currently the coach who has held his position at the same club for the longest time in the history of German football: 17 years, since Regionalliga Süd (fourth division) until Bundesliga. Perhaps this was the reason for his resistance.

Promotion after promotion

There is no greater pride for a coach than managing to take the team from the city where you were born to the top of football. Although as a young man you have played in several teams: from amateur teams in the fifth division to the second category of Austrian football, going through the German under-15, under-16, under-17 and under-20 teams he participated in Australia World Cup.

His professional sports career is off to a strong start. It started in 1992 when 1. FC Nürnberg in Bundesliga At 18 years old, but since he spent the whole year without playing, he has no doubts about being relegated to the teams in Regionalliga Südone where football must be combined with a job to survive. His best stage was in Germany Aachen where he spent five years and managed to be promoted to 2. Bundesliga. At the age of 29, in 2003 and close to retirement, he decided to return home and finish his career in Heidenheim which is in the amateur category Verbandsliga Württembergbefore the Oberliga which was created later.

He holds the captain’s armband and in 2007, before Christmas, they fired the coach, offering him to lead the team until the winter. It was only two weeks but the change was fruitful, the team was accompanied by good results and Schmidt led the team to Regionalliga Süd. Not satisfied with their success, after a year, they were promoted to the 3rd Division of German football. Five years in the third category, rotating between the 4th and 9th position to reach the 2. Bundesliga in the 2014-15 season. And yet, they didn’t even suffer as newly promoted, as their worst position was thirteenth out of eighteen teams in the 9 years they struggled to get promoted again.

In the 2019-20 season they finished third, but in 2022-23 they achieved the long-awaited jump to the top category without missing the epic: in the last game of the season they had to win against Jahn Regensburg that relegation is at stake. After 90 minutes, they lost 2-1 but an 11-minute stoppage time with a converted penalty and a goal at 90+9 minutes gave them the victory (2-3) and unleashed euphoria on the bench and in the field.

In the Conference League

Schmidt and his students showed last season that they are not the ‘Cinderella’ of the category: they finished eighth and got the status of Conference League at the present time. The Conference This is a competition where the teams that finished between 8th and 9th place (depending on the rating) UEFA of the league) and the normal thing is to look for teams like Noah FC of Armeniahe hearts Scottish or Jagiellonia Białystok Polish but also others like Legshe Copenhagen wave Fiorentinaalthough the German team will no doubt be looking forward to what they will face Chelsea next Thursday at Voith-Arena with a capacity of 15,000 spectators. They are sixth in Conference but it takes a toll on them Bundesliga where they occupy 15th place, close to the relegation spots.

Open a tapas bar

Schmidtwho suffers from ossification of the spine and therefore always tilts his head slightly to the right, is comfortable with the club added in 1846 for the reason that it is recognized as the oldest of Germanywhich was founded that year, although the football section was not created until 1911. He said that “I don’t need to rest, not even mentally. Football is not a burden for me. Sometimes, my friends tell me son and my wife what they experience in the hospital where they work and the things that happen there every day. Then I think: ‘Oh, how lucky you are!'” His firm view of the world of football has caused him to be fighting the ups and downs and since it is clear that his life does not depend on football, he says that when he leaves the bank he wants to open a tapas bar with a friend.