Pero Knezevic was to push ahead with a new beginning at SV Hohenlinden. Now the coach has canceled his contract after only 270 minutes of play.
Hohenlinden - "Especially now that you are sitting at home alone, you realize how important clubs and team sports are for our well-being and mental health." As a reflective trainer who also looks socially to the left and right, Pero Knezevic has been around for a long time known. Only in his reflection against the background of the Corona crisis does a little melancholy shine through between the lines; in the context of his surprising farewell from Hohenlinden, maybe even a touch of injured coach pride.
"I have the ambition to reach the relegation with the club. Otherwise it wouldn't have been necessary to change coaches, ”was the clear marching order of the 37-year-old when he signed up a good three months ago. After a rather sensational transfer period last summer, as a result of a permanent lack of competence in winter, almost the entire department management of SV Hohenlinden - including long-time driver and financier Ludwig Attenberger - resigned, leaving interim boss Theo Falterer a shard on the club's management floor which he returns to today.
Knezevic should push ahead with a new start for SV Hohenlinden
From a sporting point of view, Knezevic's employment, at least in the Hohenlinden area of men, should indicate a new beginning and the departure into calmer waters, although it was initially only closed until June 1 in writing. Somehow, the short guest appearance of the former Schwaiger and Ebersberger coach had a problem right from the start: Knezevic was absent on the pitch due to illness himself, then he only had a mini squad available after the commitment of three newcomers at the last moment had fallen into the water.
In fact, Knezevic was only on the SVH sideline for 270 minutes. Starting with a 3: 2 test win against Untermenzing, followed by a 5: 6 (1: 1) defeat in the district cup after a penalty shootout against SV Waldeck-Obermenzing, decided with the 2: 2 point opener against Ottobrunn. Then the season break came.
Contract termination for private reasons
"If you don't count the penalty shoot-out, which was also very questionable because the referee had a penalty saved, I haven't lost a game," Knezevic says with a smile. The fact that he now had to throw his initial ambitions with the Herliners overboard and has since moved to his home Croatia has private reasons, which Knezevic does not want to specify in detail. Just so much: “Because of a private and professional reorientation, I canceled my contract prematurely. If it hadn't happened, Theo and I would probably have continued together beyond June. ”
The new SVH chairman also confirmed this to the Ebersberger Zeitung: "It is really a shame that he went back to Croatia," says Falterer, who had had a long conversation with Knezevic after the third game. “But the step is completely understandable for family and business reasons. We didn't put any stones in his way, so it hurt us too. "
Farewell was "really difficult"
The farewell was “really difficult for him,” stresses Knezevic, “because I am very grateful to the team for showing so much effort despite the small squad”. He also wishes the entire football family on Postanger much success in the future and a return to the grass soon. "The SV Hohenlinden is really a great club with very nice people who really put a lot of heart and soul into it." No, the ambitious, former national league kicker hadn't imagined his unplanned farewell after a short interlude in Hohenlinden. “But because of Corona, you just noticed that you have to subordinate certain things. And unfortunately now football had to believe in me too. ”
While Knezevic is now starting anew in Croatia, his successor is already in the starting blocks. However, the SVH boss cannot and does not want to announce who it is. "We are in intensive talks and are close to finishing," he says. He hopes to be able to report enforcement this weekend by signing. Falterer reveals that it is a young trainer who should inspire. "Personally, he suits us, like someone like Pero", the chairman sees an "ideal solution" in his possible successor. For Theo Falterer is important: "Our boys should have fun playing football again." Even after the long corona-related break.
Text: Julan Betzl, Olaf Heid