This is how FCH coach Frank Schmidt’s book reads – SWR Aktuell

SWR editor Peter Köpple of Studio Ulm has read 216 pages from FCH trainer Frank Schmidt’s new book and thinks it’s unexpectedly good. You don’t have to be a Heidenheim fan or go to the stadium. Enough if you’re even a bit interested in football in the area, Schmidt’s biography ‘Unkaputtbar’ is definitely worth a read – especially now that it’s summer and we look forward to the new Bundesliga season.

A behind-the-scenes look at the Heidenheim Club

You get very close to what kind of guy Frank Schmidt is and how he acts. Schmidt is completely obsessed with football and thinks about it day and night: How do we win the next game? In the work, the reader looks behind the scenes of professional football, learning interesting details from the life of an exceptional coach and also interpretations of the unique success story of German football.

The book is written in easy-to-understand language, with no boxed sentences, and hardly any foreign words – just straight forward, just like Frank Schmidt’s. We don’t know if anyone helped him because he wrote a lot of his autobiography during the World Cup winter break. Ironically, he himself says that he is not a huge fan of books and has never read a book to the end. But this particular football story of Heidenheim had to be written down and recorded.

Heidenheim

Heidenheim’s preparations for their Bundesliga premiere begin on July 5th. Two training camps and first friendlies are set.

For example, you can learn about formative experiences from Schmidt’s childhood in Giengen an der Brenz. At the end of the seventies, when he was playing with the older boys on the street among the garages. He wrote, “I learned to assert myself, not to give up, among the garages. I was deeply moved.”

When Frank Schmidt beat Bayern as a player

Years later, when he sensationally won the DFB Cup against Bayern Munich as a player with TSV Vestenbergsreuth, it was also a staple for him. With the clear realization: “No match is decided before the match begins. Tremendous power can be unleashed in every game if the will and passion are right.”

It’s impressive how Frank Schmidt describes his biggest crisis as a coach. In 2017, after a series of defeats, when the media had long been speculating about his dismissal, Schmidt did not know what to do now. Then he ordered everyone into the dressing room, 40 men, players, assistant coaches, physiotherapists and kit manager. Everyone should say what is wrong in front of everyone. FCH CEO Holger Sanwald said at the time: “Before firing a coach, I will fire ten players!”

Heidenheim

1. FC Heidenheim has been promoted to the Bundesliga. FCH in Regensburg with a score of 0: 2 turned into a victory in overtime. Then successful coach Frank Schmidt speaks in an exclusive interview with SWR Sport.

Frank Schmidt: The conviction that he is indestructible

Frank Schmidt lives football, constantly thinks about the next game, has an unshakable belief in himself, and writes at the end of the book after the promotion: “It also depends on character, on character and on the conviction that you are indestructible. I am already thinking about how we can leave three Bundesliga teams behind next season.”

However, the book also has shorter lengths: Frank Schmidt stresses over and over Heidenheim’s humility, the humility that enables all things to be achieved through diligence, honest work, and irrepressible will. Halfway through the book, this becomes gradually repetitive and at one point so self-praising that it no longer comes across as very humble.

Not practical: white writing on a green background

Another point of criticism is a purely typographical matter. There are often entries, thoughts from his wife or club president Sanwald, for example, in white letters on a green background. This is difficult to read visually, for example when the light is poor in the evening. “But the bottom line is, for me, the book is really, really good,” says Peter Koppel. “It’s easy to read, it’s fun. Totally recommended to everyone in the area with a little interest in soccer.”

The book “Unbreakable. My Life. Football. My Club” by Frank Schmidt is published by Murmann Verlag and costs 24 euros.