Wagner shoots against training from 1860 and FC Bayern: "Wouldn't send my children there"

Created: 2022-02-22Updated: 2022-02-22, 11:05 p.m

By: Corbinian Kothny

Loves his job: Sandro Wagner.

© Sven Leifer

Sandro Wagner took over the professional team of SpVgg Unterhaching right from his first position as head coach.

In doing so, he changed quite a few things in his first six months.

Unterhaching

- Actually, Sandro Wagner should take over the U19 of the SpVgg Unterhaching in the summer.

But as you know, things turned out differently.

After only two successful relegation games with the A youth, the ex-Bayern star was promoted to head coach of the professional team.

Wagner took over from Arie van Lent after relegation to the Regionalliga Bayern.

When he took office, however, the 34-year-old encountered a completely defective team.

“We found difficult circumstances.

Some players were wedged together, it wasn't a team," Wagner explains in an interview with "

".

SpVgg Unterhaching: Sandro Wagner not only cleans up on the pitch

But the ex-national player was not impressed by the difficult starting conditions.

Using unconventional methods, Wagner tried to form a team out of the team.

So the new coach brought a backpack to dinner, in which each player was supposed to put a piece of paper with what was bothering them.

According to Wagner, there was something critical in every area.

"We discussed it in front of everyone, and on the second night it was a different team," explains Wagner.

But the three-time German champion did not only change a few things in terms of player leadership.

For example, the cabins have been completely renewed.

"The cabin aisle was dark, empty bottles were lying around.

Now an LED lamp lights up on the Haching emblem.

There were still things in the dressing room from players who are no longer here, the lockers were garbage dumps," says the 34-year-old.

According to Wagner, there is now an old television in the dressing room, on which the players can watch game scenes instead of “looking at their stupid cell phones or up in the air”.

Sandro Wagner would not send his children to Bayern or Sixty

But that's not all.

A material warehouse became a parlor where the boys can feel at home.

"We tried to tear down walls," says Wagner, explaining the changes.

In the foreground at SpVgg are not the results, "but the development of young players".

After all, most of the U19 players are used in the top four leagues.

Therefore, Wagner sees the game association as the perfect club for talents.

"If you ask me where I would send my children: not to Bavaria, not to Sixty, but to Haching.

You have a niche here.

How soon will you make it into professional football here?

Bayern has a fifteen-year-old from the USA.

When you're sixty, the training is very, very dogged," says the coach, pointing out the advantages of the regional league.

But Unterhaching is not only the perfect place for talent, but also for Wagner himself.

"It's a jackpot to be able to train here.

I'm at the highest level I can train at without completing a football coaching degree.

And I can fully identify with the club's path," he enthuses about his employer.

He cannot yet answer how long Wagner will be on the sidelines for SpVgg.

"I really don't know what's in three and a half years.

And I would do my job just as energetically if I were gone in a week.” (kk)