As of: March 18, 2024, 3:08 p.m
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Christian Streich (r), head coach of SC Freiburg, stands on the training pitch and talks to Julian Schuster (l).
© Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa
It'll be over in two months.
Coach Christian Streich announces the end of his era in Freiburg.
The club is his “life,” he says as he says goodbye.
The successor could come from within our own ranks.
Freiburg - Christian Streich smiled somewhat painedly into the camera.
It was anything but easy for him to convey this message.
“It was with a very heavy heart” that he announced that he would no longer be extending his contract as head coach of SC Freiburg and would be leaving the Bundesliga club in the summer.
It had become apparent: an era is ending in Freiburg.
It is a “breaking point,” as ex-striker Nils Petersen aptly put it.
The club is losing its greatest identification figure and the league is losing one of its defining figures.
A successor should be announced “promptly,” the SC announced on Monday.
There are increasing signs that it could be Freiburg's former captain Julian Schuster.
It would be a typical decision for the SC, as the 38-year-old knows the processes within the club all too well.
Schuster is currently the liaison between professionals and young talent at Freiburg, for whom he played more than 200 competitive games between 2008 and 2018.
Although he has no experience as a head coach, he holds the highest coaching license in German football.
As Streich's successor, he would be following in enormous footsteps.
The good conscience of professional football
“This club is my life,” said Streich on Monday, expressing what he has always embodied with every fiber in his almost 29 years at the sports club.
The son of a butcher, who completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk and later studied German, sports and history to become a teacher, is down-to-earth, emotional and authentic.
It's not just some South Baden residents who would probably say: one of us.
Streich's interviews and press conferences are sometimes as legendary as his emotional outbursts on the sidelines.
For many fans, he also represents a kind of clear conscience in the increasingly commercialized football industry.
Because he often takes a clear stand on political and social issues, Streich enjoys great popularity beyond sports.
Long-time companions such as Freiburg's ex-president Fritz Keller as well as coaching colleagues such as the new Wolfsburg player Ralph Hasenhüttl paid tribute to Streich.
There were also reactions from politics.
Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, for example, called the outgoing SC coach a “legend in German football” on social media.
Streich was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg and the Julius Hirsch Award of Honor from the German Football Association (DFB), which honors people who actively fight against discrimination and promote understanding.
Time for new energy in the club
"I gave it a lot of thought.
We talked for a long time,” said the 58-year-old, commenting on the approaching farewell.
The fact that he announced it via a video distributed by the club may also have been for self-protection.
In another context he might have shed a tear.
He is grateful for the many experiences he had with the SC.
Not just in the more than twelve years that he has been head coach of the professionals.
Before that, he was a youth coach for Baden for many years - and one of the central figures in their strong youth work.
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It was always important to him to make the jump at the right time, said Streich.
He is “extraordinarily grateful for the great support and affection that I have always received.” But “new energy” is now needed in the club and in the professional team.
Players hoped for a contract extension
It is a decision “that we regret, but can fully respect and understand,” said SC sports director Jochen Saier.
The time to finally pay tribute to Streich has not yet come, the “journey” is not yet over.
Captain Christian Günter, just like midfielder Nicolas Höfler one of Streich's long-time protégés at SC, still had a quiet "hope that he would continue" on Sunday. On the evening of the lost game against Bayer Leverkusen (2:3), the players were, according to dpa information but then was informed about Streich's decision.
Two Europa League round of 16 and one cup final
Ultimately, it was no longer a big surprise that Streich was now drawing the line.
Working as a head coach and in public took a lot of energy out of him - perhaps especially so in the current season, when Freiburg is struggling with a lot of injury concerns.
The fact that the humble Badeners have moved closer and closer to the national top in recent years is also thanks to Streich.
He took over the SC professionals during the winter break of the 2011/2012 season.
Of the current Bundesliga coaches, only Frank Schmidt from 1. FC Heidenheim has been in office at his club for longer without a break.
Streich led the SC to the round of 16 of the Europa League twice and to the final of the DFB Cup two years ago, but was also relegated once with them in 2015.
However, the club stuck with him at the time and was immediately promoted again.
Eight Bundesliga games remain, then a new era begins in Freiburg.
Streich will try to lead the ninth-placed team into the European Cup again.
The gap that needs to be closed afterwards - possibly through former midfielder Schuster - is huge.
According to Volker Finke, who coached SC from 1991 to 2007, that was already the case.
Many people also asked themselves whether such a long-term successful model would ever exist again.
A few years later, the Streich era began.
dpa