Completely or not at all: He never did it under that. Anyone who, like Christian Streich, carries out his job day after day, week after week with the highest level of energy and the greatest empathy for the players entrusted to him, will at some point feel that a coach like him is full of dedication could be a lot. This Monday, one day after the 2-3 home defeat against Bundesliga leaders Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Christian Streich announced the end of an era with him as the coaching institution of his club and top German football for the end of the season on May 18th, when the sports club will compete at Union Berlin for the last league test of this season.
It’s hard to imagine SC Freiburg without Christian Streich, as the South Baden native, who was born in Weil am Rhein, is so present in the minds and hearts of not only his players. His Alemannic timbre, his intensity in speaking and acting, and his argumentative nature have long been part of the image of the Bundesliga, in which he is one of the influential minds and a coaching authority with heart and soul. However, this Christian Streich with all his sometimes bizarre peculiarities will soon be missed in the often uniform rush of league operations.
But he himself, who, knowing full well that his strength would also be finite, only used to extend his contracts every year with the Sport-Club Freiburg, his everything club, is looking forward to a break Football.
Streich was and is a formative football teacher
The man who succeeded Marcus Sorg, who was then dismissed in Freiburg, on December 29, 2011 and went from being his assistant coach to head coach of a team threatened with relegation, quickly made a name for himself as a formative football teacher who had no problem with his own To articulate his scruples and worries, and yet always seemed like a strong leader of the professionals sworn to him. Streich, as was already revealed in his first half series, was an emergency helper, navigating his teams through times of crisis and correcting his only relegation with SC Freiburg in 2015 by getting promoted back to the Bundesliga a year later.
The way he led his teams through difficult times and, more recently, increasingly good times, in good times and bad, with the competence of a caring boss, was highly respectable, but also contributed to the fact that Streich no longer used his old narrative of the small SC Freiburg as unhesitatingly as he used to could present. Two additional international tasks up to the Europa League round of 16 this and last season as well as reaching the DFB Cup final in 2022, which the sports club only lost on penalties against RB Leipzig, testify to the new greatness of SC Freiburg also documented by the move to the new, larger and almost constantly sold out new stadium.
Streich, the club’s second long-term coach after football teacher Volker Finke (1991 to 2007), was influenced by his early years in the service of the sports club, when he was involved in the club’s youth football from 1995 as an instructor, friend and helper in the Freiburg team football school and celebrated successes such as winning the German A youth championship in 2008 and three titles in the finals of the DFB youth club cup.
“This club is my life,” emphasized the passionate football teacher in his video message on Monday, in which he announced his departure from SC Freiburg as head coach of the professional team. In order not to cause deep sadness about his decision, the amicable prankster pointed out that he was looking forward to the future of his club. “I know that very good decisions are being made, that things will continue here as they have in recent years and decades – always moving forward and keeping your head up, even when things were difficult.”
Christian Streich is leaving SC Freiburg at the end of the season. : Image: dpa
It goes without saying that his as yet unknown successor will still be taking on a difficult legacy. Streich, however, had to risk this turning point in the internal life of SC Freiburg, probably also with a view to himself and his well-being. “I believe,” he said in his video message, that “now is the right time to make room for new energies, new people and new opportunities. It’s been very important to me in the past that I don’t miss the moment when I think it’s right to leave.”
Roland Zorn, Freiburg Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Peter Heß Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3 Daniel Theweleit, Leverkusen Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1
It was probably clear to Streich for a long time that his Freiburg era as a fighter with a clearly defined canon of values, respected beyond his area of expertise for his socio-political statements against the right, for more environmental protection and for a defensive democracy, would come to an end at some point. He told the football magazine “11 Freunde” last October: “I feel that I’m getting older. The strength is dwindling, it is now foreseeable. I find myself thinking more and more often: How much energy will the players still receive?”
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Enough to finish this season respectably and successfully. Until then, no one should believe that coach Christian Streich will not continue to push forward with all his strength, energy and belligerence for the benefit of his Freiburg team.
