German coach at his zenith: How Roger Schmidt revived Benfica Lisbon

German coach at the zenith
How Roger Schmidt revived Benfica Lisbon

By Nils Bastek, Lisbon
05/29/2023, 8:13 p.m

Roger Schmidt crowned his first year at Benfica by winning the 38th championship. What he experiences afterwards makes a noticeable impression on him. The 56-year-old is held in exceptional esteem in Portugal. At least in Germany that was never the case.

Roger Schmidt has never experienced such force. Of course, the 56-year-old knows the Marquês de Pombal, one of the most central squares in Lisbon, but he doesn’t know it like deep on Sunday night. Tens of thousands of Benfica fans are standing on the gigantic roundabout and at this moment they are staring spellbound at their German coach. “Rrrrroger, Rrrrroger, Rrrrroger”, they call his name, they want to hear his words now. So there is Schmidt with the microphone, he smiles a little cautiously and thanks the supporters for their support.

Not only once does he use the word “incredible”, he looks visibly overwhelmed, after a few seconds he hands over the floor to President Rui Costa. Schmidt can only really understand the importance of winning the 38th championship after a few hours of sleep the next day. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It has to be something unique or at least one of the best championship celebrations in Europe,” enthuses the ex-Bayer Leverkusen coach.

In a way, it fits his first year as coach of Portugal’s record champions. Because something like Lisbon is actually new to him. After just a few months, he conquered the enthusiasm of the fans with his impressive attacking football and an even more impressive winning streak, with his first championship title since 2019 he made it into their hearts. The Sauerland, who is rather reserved by nature, is admired at Benfica in a way he has never experienced in his career.

When Roger Schmidt didn’t want to leave the pitch

Not after the only championship of his career in 2014 with Red Bull Salzburg, where there was not even a remote atmosphere like that in Portugal’s capital at the weekend. Not even in China or at PSV Eindhoven, where he said goodbye last summer by winning the cup. And certainly not in Germany, although to this day quite a few people in Leverkusen are talking about the best coach for more than ten years. “Schmidt has exceptional knowledge of the physical, technical and psychological demands of this sport. He was the perfect choice,” said former Benfica pro Álvaro Magalhães in the sports newspaper “A Bola” on Monday.

But why doesn’t this picture of him exist in Germany? To this day, a look at his Wikipedia entry is enough to find answers. Sure, on the one hand, Schmidt was and never will be an entertainer like Jürgen Klopp, i.e. someone who can win over the public with the power of his words alone. On the other hand, there is this Wikipedia sub-item called “Controversies”, which lists two incidents from his time at Bayer.

In February 2016, Schmidt was referred to the stands at the Bundesliga game against Dortmund after a complaint. But he didn’t want to accept this punishment and just stood on the edge of the page. Until referee Felix Zwayer interrupted the game for several minutes. Months later he got into a fight with the then Hoffenheim coach Julian Nagelsmann and was sent back to the stands. This time he went straight. The image of the provocative stubborn head had long since settled in the minds of many observers.

Schmidt had trouble dealing with it. Already in the early months of his time in Leverkusen, a complicated relationship developed with some journalists. In the league, his team quickly impressed with the pressing football that is typical for him, but at the press conferences he always seemed tense or irritated. He knows all that and has learned from it, and of course today’s Roger Schmidt is different from the one from 2014 to 2017 under the Bayer Cross.

Not even the captain knew Roger Schmidt

But the somewhat distorted image of him in Germany has remained mainly because of those “controversies”. It’s different in Portugal because most Benfica fans didn’t even know him a year ago. Even captain Nicolás Otamendi had no idea who his club had signed in the summer of 2022. On Saturday evening, after the decisive 3-0 win over Santa Clara in the season finale, the Argentine world champion and his coach hugged for a few seconds.

“Roger Schmidt: The coach who led the revolution at the Estádio da Luz,” headlined the “Journal das Notícias” afterwards. “Roger Schmidt: The quiet reformer,” wrote the writer Bruno Vieira Amaral in a guest article in the “Tribuna Expresso” on Monday. Amaral recalls the doubts that accompanied Schmidt’s commitment a year ago. Suddenly there was this German who hardly anyone knew, what should this Schmidt know about football in Portugal? And then this stoic calm with which he followed his team’s games from the sidelines.

But it only took Schmidt a few weeks to allay the skepticism. He formed a team that delighted the fans with their storm runs. His team only allowed themselves a small phase of weakness from the beginning to the middle of April, otherwise the record of this season reads impressively: best attack (82 goals), best defense (20 goals conceded), longest winning streak (13 games without defeat). Schmidt has revived a club that, according to its own perception, was on the ground a year ago. Four years without a championship is a (far too) long time for a club like Benfica.

Key player Grimaldo moves to the Bundesliga

Winning this title is also a personal one for him who has long been a seeker as a coach. Schmidt worked in a wide variety of countries and leagues, his coaching positions read like those of an adventure traveller. But he only seems to have really arrived now. Videos of him toasting the championship with different beers have been circulating over the weekend. Sometimes Schmidt takes a sip from a huge bottle, sometimes he holds a can in his hand.

The Benfica fans celebrate him for these pictures, until today they have been looked at umpteen times on the internet. Incidentally, in his Portuguese Wikipedia entry, the sub-item “controversies” doesn’t even exist. Of course, Schmidt enjoys this appreciation. If only because he’s never seen her before. But he’s also been in business long enough not to rest on his laurels.

Schmidt knows that the future will bring changes. Aspiring top talents such as Gonçalo Ramos, António Silva and João Neves have already attracted the attention of top international clubs. Left-back Alejandro Grimaldo, Benfica’s leading assist provider of the past season, has already signed a contract with Bayer Leverkusen. How his team looks in the coming season is completely unclear at this point in time. That’s why Schmidt was already trying at the weekend to put the brakes on expectations for next year.

When a journalist asked him on Sunday about a quote from his son, according to which he wanted to make the Benfica fans’ dream of the 40th championship come true as a coach, Schmidt had to smile. “I didn’t hear that. But I don’t think he meant it seriously,” he says, looking at his son. “Like I said before, it doesn’t pay to look too far ahead in football.”