Until a year ago, Lulzim Kuqi trained the reserves of the BCF Wolfratshausen quite successfully.
Now the Wolfratshauser is working as a coach at TSV 1860 Munich and says: "The feeling is incomparable"
Lulzim Kuqi worked as a coach at BCF Wolfratshausen II in the A class.
The 40-year-old switched to the Munich Löwen coaching staff a year ago.
The Wolfratshauser is currently the assistant coach of the third team at TSV 1860.
Wolfratshausen / Munich -
It is a dream for almost every amateur footballer in the region: lace up the shoes for Bayern, the Sechzger or Unterhaching.
For Wolfratshauser Lulzim Kuqi, who is simply called “Lulli” by his friends, this wish has come true.
The long-time coach of the reserves of the BCF Wolfratshausen has been part of the coaching team at the Munich Lions for over a year.
As an assistant coach, the 40-year-old looks after the third team of the traditional club - in the district league.
Kuqi, who works as operations manager at DB Regio Bus, has not yet sniffed the air with the professionals.
When he talks about his work at TSV, you can tell he is fascinated by working for the lions, albeit in the second line.
However, when he moved to Munich, Kuqi did not fulfill a long-cherished wish.
“The whole engagement actually came about by chance,” he says.
Because after four years as a trainer at BCF Wolfratshausen, the coach decided to “make a cut”, in other words: to leave the team.
After the promotion to the district class and relegation in the following season, Kuqi had come to the insight "that a new coach, a new speech could do the team good".
You don't always have the chance to switch to 1860 - maybe only once "
Lulzim Kuqi (football coach from Wolfratshausen)
During his tenure in Farchet, the 40-year-old had repeatedly arranged test matches with the amateur teams of the Munich Lions and thus established contacts with the traditional club.
At some point - Kuqi had already decided to say goodbye to Wolfratshausen - his cell phone rang: The Löwen were looking for an assistant coach for the fourth team in the A-class.
For Wolfratshauser, who was head coach in the district class, actually a step backwards.
“But the conversations were really good and you don't always have the chance to switch to 1860 - maybe only once,” he recalls.
So Kuqi accepted and prevailed against a large field of applicants.
"I was told that I convinced them with my human nature," he says.
Even in Farchet, Kuqi had a good personal connection with his players, "but I was always able to make it clear when I expected discipline".
A balancing act that impressed the Munich decision-makers - and, it seems, also the players in his new team.
Because only half a year after Kuqi was hired by TSV, he was in a conference with the sporting director and his coaching colleagues, who revealed to him that the Wolfratshauser will be appointed as assistant coach to the third team in the district league.
“The players spoke out in favor of it,” says Kuqi, who was delighted with this “great confirmation”.
In the team he found an extraordinary mixture for a regional league team: “A few of the boys are ardent Löwen fans who stand on the curve with the first team, roar their hearts out and in the games 150 percent for theirs Give club.
Others are new from the youth training center and want to make it through to the second with our team. "
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Under the sign of the lion: Wolfratshauser football coach Lulzim Kuqi feels in good hands with “Munich's great love”.
© TSV 1860 Munich
The fascination these players have for the club can also be heard in the words of the 40-year-old when he talks about his coaching work.
"It's a special feeling when you can have a short chat with Michael Köllner before training." After all, Köllner is none other than the coach of the sixth division professionals in the third division.
Kuqi and Köllner, who has already gained first division experience with 1. FC Nürnberg, often meet in the car park of the Löwen site before the Wolfratshauser prepares his players for the season on the heated artificial training turf.
It also holds special moments.
Especially in the games where the loyal lion fans cavort in the stands of the district league games.
"We had a normal league game and just before kick-off 50 thoroughbred fans came into the stadium and yelled at us for 90 minutes," he recalls.
“These are experiences that you can't go through with any other club,” says Kuqi.
Every now and then - but this is the exception - he even experiences the lion flair on the field.
"If there is really a shortage of staff, I'll be there myself," says the Wolf-ratshauser.
In his active career, the 40-year-old laced his shoes for the BCF-Reserve, the SV Gelting and the DJK Waldram - and now also for “Munich's great love”, as the fans call their lions.
Kuqi is satisfied with the decision he made a year and a half ago: "The feeling with the lions is incomparable."
Dominik Stallein
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