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Resting balls from Denmark: Standard coach Mads Buttgereit
“At first I thought someone was messing with me,” said Mads Buttgereit at his presentation in the summer of 2021: It was about a call from Hansi Flick, who offered the now 39-year-old Dane a position as standard coach with the DFB team. When Buttgereit was finally sure that he was not being messed with, he said yes: “This is a huge honor for me.”
Buttgereit had previously made a name for himself in international football at FC Midtjylland. Thanks in part to the set piece coach, the Danish provincial club became one of the most dangerous teams after dead balls in Europe. “Set pieces are one of our secrets to success,” Midtjylland’s then midfielder Tim Sparv told SPOX and GOAL in 2018 in an interview. Together with Buttgereit, he won a Danish championship title and a cup. Inspired by NFL coaches, Buttgereit “developed his own playbook in which there are several alternatives for all different set pieces. In training, he is extremely enthusiastic and driven. Sometimes he joins in himself to show how serious he is.”
After his time in Midtjylland, Buttgereit moved to the Danish association, initially supporting the U18 team and then the senior national team at the 2021 European Championship. Thanks in part to several set-piece goals, the Danes sensationally reached the semi-finals, where they narrowly lost to England despite a direct free kick from Mikkel Damsgaard.
After moving to Germany, Buttgereit continued to work as a teacher of sports and German in a Danish school, and only after his first year on Flick’s coaching staff did he get a permanent position with the DFB. There are no language barriers between Buttgereit and the national players: parts of his family come from Celle in Lower Saxony, he himself has dual citizenship and speaks impeccable German.
2024-06-12 11:19:13
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