Third division are rarely in the headlines. Otherwise the VfL Osnabrück: He is not only the leader, but with Daniel Thioune of the first German-born black head coach of a professional club.
As Daniel Thioune, head coach of the VfL Osnabrück, the small press room, enters, at the same time serves as a club Museum, he takes the time to greet everybody and shake every Hand. Then Thioune and the sports Director of the club, Benjamin Schmedes talk about the upcoming game and the arrival of a new centre-back. Then speaker of the Association are clearing out of the press, the chairs. Everyday life in a third division club. Less commonplace is the fact that Thioune is the only black head coach in Germany’s Top three leagues, and that his team of the VfL Osnabrück is at the top.
“I’ve seen a few more hurdles than others,” says Thioune of the DW. “The color of my skin might have a role to play that I was not able to overcome some hurdles. But I can’t summon it.” Thioune, born near Osnabrück, started playing as a youngster in club football, but then lost temporarily the fun of it. When he had found him again, he made his way through the Amateur leagues and eventually became a professional. For the VfL Osnabrück and Red to select the best White he rode a total of more than 120 second-League games.
Lessons learned
In my mid-30 Thioune joined the coach business. He was in charge of the youth teams of osnabrück, worked as a talent scout and continued his philosophy of Football in the youth Academy of the club. The DFB Thioune graduated from the trainer course. Among his classmates the hope Heimer Bundesliga-Coach Julian nail man, the 44-Year-old also is still in contact. “I’ve learned that you have to take in life each level individually and that it therefore takes maybe a little longer sometimes,” says Thioune. “But even if the path is a little bumpy, I know that I can still go.”
After a little more than a year on the Post of the head coach Thioune has come on his way, already more than many might have expected: Osnabrück is at the top of the third division. The rise would be not only another remarkable step in the career of the Coach. Since the turn of the Millennium, VfL Osnabrück shuttled repeatedly between the third tier and the 2. League. An Elevator team, not a trace of stability. Since 2011, the club’s third-rate. But the reforms undertaken are beginning to bear fruit.
A political Statement against the Right on the shirts of VfL Osnabrück
With Benjamin Schmedes Osnabrück now has a experienced sports Director who is able to make with the limited funds of the Association, the right shops, and with Manfred Hülsmann, a President with a clear position: “We put in our living room a unique character against the Right.” As Hülsmann said this on Easter weekend, 2018, carried, the VfL players in the match against Hansa Rostock jerseys, where instead of the sponsor’s name were the words: “Against the Right”. And then the loyal followers of the club. Your Fanaktionen belong to the politically and socially engaged in most of the country. In particular, it is a matter of the VfL Osnabrück to move forward – and it starts with Thioune.
In this season of Osnabrück, was able to score in seven Games, despite a backlog, most of these games in the VfL won even. Only one defeat in 21 Games conceding Thiounes team. Also because the Trainer will respond in the Pause frequently. As the wizard Merlin Polzin is at his side. The 28-Year-old for his young age very clever, says Harald Pistorius, sports journalist of the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, who accompanied the club a long time: “I have experienced over the years really been a lot of football. But what he told me and how he has said it to me – really gross. A different world. A real head man.”
Clear in the decisions
This also applies to Thioune, shortly before his graduation in sports Sciences and education. The Trainer knows how to brings out the Best in people. “I’m always clear in my decisions. I will want to hold dear the head for something I’ve done than for something that I haven’t done,” says Thioune. His striker Marcos Alvarez he was on the way in the summer vacation that he could not pack his stuff when he was at the beginning of this season in the Form of. Alvarez spent his vacation with captain Marc Heider, together they went to the morning swim and afternoon run. Equal to the start of the season Alvarez turned up, and three sunk a total of free kicks in the net.
Coach Thioune has a good rapport with his players, and radiates the necessary authority
In Osnabrück, the use of a black Coach was never the subject of a discussion. “Maybe it’s good that nobody talks about it,” says Thioune. “That normality has occurred, that it is simply a matter of course.” He believe that he got his Job because he was black, how he didn’t get other Items because of its skin color. “What is crucial is the quality of the Individual. And should also be in the foreground. The skin color should really be a Problem, then my quality would have to be very, very high, if I still managed to snag a coaching job in one of the three leagues.”
The next step
However, there are not many black coaches in the German football. Valerian asked Ishmael, a native Frenchman with a German passport, trained for a few months, the then-first division-Relegated 1. FC Nürnberg (2014) and, later, the Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg (2016/17). Otto Addo belongs to the coach of the team of Dieter Hecking at VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach, is one of the young talents in the transition area to the license players responsible. Thioune United mentioned two colleagues from the third division: Lamine Cisse, Co-coach of the third-division side Würzburger Kickers, and David Yelldell, a goalkeeper trainer for SG Sonnenhof.
But why are there so few black coaches in Germany? “Maybe we need to question more the people, the setting of this Trainer or not,” says Thioune. “Things have to grow, until it is considered normal. Maybe Germany has a few stages of development more than, for example, Holland or France.” Even if he himself may not perceive it so – Thioune could be the one to bring Germany to the next level.