Maximilian Wagner from Antdorf started his first coaching position at FCK Schlehdorf in summer 2019.
He would never have guessed that this season would be so long - a challenge of a special kind.
Schlehdorf / Antdorf
- Maximilian Wagner trains his first own soccer team.
The coach of FC Kochelsee Schlehdorf understood that a coach in the amateur field doesn't just have to put out the cones and replace the players.
In the current situation, you also need a certain amount of knowledge in the educational field.
In that context, it never hurts to understand the psychological principle of reinforcement.
Rewarding can reinforce behavior.
Translated: With the Schlehdorfer footballers there is a small price for everyone who completes the running competitions faster than the coach.
“One or the other needs an incentive,” says Wagner.
That drives him himself.
He doesn't want to be last.
“Somehow that helps.” Wagner calls it, in his humorous Bavarian way, a “little kick in the ass”.
Basically, it's all about not losing touch with the team.
As is happening in other clubs where the footballers haven't exchanged ideas for weeks.
The Schlehdorfer held an internal Christmas party via video conference.
So they still know each other what they all look like.
Soccer: Maximilian Wagner wants to build something up in Schlehdorf and stay for at least three seasons
Maximilian Wagner, the Maxi, as everyone says, started at FC Kochelsee Schlehdorf in summer 2019.
At the start he paid a round of beer and presented his plan.
In three years he wanted to build something, to look after the team for at least three seasons.
Now he can't even be sure that he'll even manage a season in three years.
Who knows what else the pandemic will come up with.
But he won't give up.
Despite all the mousetraps that are strangely scattered all over his premiere station.
His first training camp in March ended after a day when the authorities declared South Tyrol a risk area overnight.
Pretty soon afterwards, the first employers got in touch who did not like to see their workforce go into quarantine - for a hobby like football.
Perhaps, at least that is what Wagner hopes, the experiences will help him at some point in the next stages, where in a year and a half he has already experienced so much that cannot be planned.
I have to protect myself.
Maximilian Wagner
If there's one thing his career teaches, it's that he's learned to cope with setbacks.
At Bayern Munich, then U19 Bundesliga, he was out for months with an inflammation of the pubic bone.
His cruciate ligament tore in Wolfratshausen.
In Antdorf, the last station of his playing career, he only ran into pain killers.
The ankle joint has worn out so much for several years, and the doctor has even forbidden him to run.
Wagner calls severe osteoarthritis an "eternal problem".
So that the desire for football doesn't overwhelm him at some point, he has left his player pass at home in Antdorf as a precaution.
Better safe than sorry.
“I have to protect myself,” he jokes.
At some point he will need an artificial joint.
So far he has been able to do almost anything, cycling, mountain climbing.
Except football, actually.
But: once or twice a year he steps in during training.
“I have to pay for this for a week,” he says.
Soccer: Maximilian Wagner relies on roundtables in Schlehdorf
If you love football as much as Wagner does, you all too often find yourself staring at the field inactive.
Like the viewer of a disaster film, captivated by helplessness.
Even if it is not always fair to compare football in the district class with a disaster.
Wagner would then like to “take part, set accents or just show how it's done properly.
I would have thought that you would have more influence, ”he says.
But he's quite alone with his tutorial in mind, which he would like to play, and doesn't know how to get to the eleven men.
Well, he found a way to address it afterwards.
The newcomer relies on roundtables.
Before the last cup game, for example, he had his footballers vote on whether they wanted to compete at all because of the rapidly increasing number of infections.
He has smart players who argue well.
“Nobody gets any money from us.
You have to talk to each other, ”he says.
Football: He takes something away from every coach that Wagner has played under
For a newcomer, these are amazingly clear ideas of how to lead a team these days.
But not surprising either.
A brief look at the history of Wagner's coaches during his active time, all of them top people: at Bayern Roman Grill at first, now player advisor to Philipp Lahm.
“That got me the furthest.” In Wolfratshausen Andi Brunner, the little general with the knowledge of a football professor.
In Antdorf Jürgen Staiger and Roland Krammer, under whom he was assistant trainer.
He took over many elements, training structure, tactics and preparation from him, but not the ASV - his home club.
He deliberately left Antdorf, the team.
He continues to help on the board (as an assessor).
“It was clear to me that I had to go.
Football: Even a youth team, for example at TSV Murnau, would have irritated Wagner
Also because many guys still played in the team. ”That might have led to conflicts of interest.
Schlehdorf asked.
Also TSV Murnau, which constantly needs qualified people for the youth sector.
He had "thought hard".
A- or B-youth, regional or regional league, that really appeals.
20 guys, "who are horny for football, from my whole attitude that would suit me", emphasizes Maximilian Wagner.
And yet he finally decided to work in the adult sector.
"Because the competition is greater."
But the concept of the TSV, this kind of Oberland base, made a lasting impression on him.
It is quite possible that he will tackle this in two or three years.
After the time in Schlehdorf, which - in his opinion - shouldn't last longer than four years.
Then the trainer wears himself out.
At the moment nobody can say when the Schlehdorfer are playing anyway.
Wagner has agreed the first pro forma test matches for the end of February.
He himself doesn't believe that they will take place.
The world explorer, who has already been to every continent, has not yet planned any trips for 2021.
The only sure thing is his job as a project manager at Tunap in Wolfratshausen.
The chemical company has disinfectants in its portfolio.