“Half Life Given”
“Pensioner” Dardai can be stressed for his Hertha
04/17/2023 2:26 p.m
Pal Dardai is coach of Hertha BSC for the third time. He should and wants to save the Bundesliga soccer team from relegation, as he has already done before. During his performance, the 47-year-old chats about the lack of leading players, the decision-making power in his family – and his dog.
For coach Pal Dardai, the return to relegation candidate Hertha BSC was an affair of the heart. “Actually, the plan was for me to come back to the academy in the summer. Then the call came that they wanted to talk to me,” said Dardai at his introduction: “It took a little long, but I said yes. I want to come back there, that the Hertha youth players don’t leave the club, that they find the A team sexy again.”
He gave “half his life to ensure that we have a good youth department,” said the 47-year-old: “But we need a good senior team for that. And if this senior team is relegated now, then with me – that’s that. Either stay in with me or get off with me.”
Dardai does not alone decide on engagement
After the 5-2 swatter at Schalke 04, Hertha fell to last place in the table on Friday. As a result, Dardai, who had looked after the Berliners from 2015 to 2019 and 2021 and twice saved them from relegation, replaced coach Sandro Schwarz on Sunday. The returning coach did not want to criticize the work of his predecessor. However, when asked several times, he said: “There were many mistakes that need to be corrected. I can already see things that don’t work.”
The final decision on Dardai’s third term in office was made by his wife Monika. “The whole of Germany can laugh now. I don’t have my pants on at home, but Monika,” said Dardai: “Tommy and Benni (managing director Thomas Herrich and sports director Benjamin Weber, editor’s note) were lucky, they were persuaded her. Monika made the decision: ‘Okay, if you want to do it, then do it’.” The first test is the home game on Saturday (3.30 p.m. / Sky and in the ntv.de live ticker) against Werder Bremen.
Regardless of the outcome of the end of the season with only six games left, Dardai will stay with his Berlin heart club. Then just with the youngsters or just as an A trainer? “In football, only the next pass counts,” he said evasively.
Dardai on Boateng and leading players
A selection of leading players, which he cannot yet name, is essential for staying up. Kevin-Prince Boateng as the only emotional leader will not be enough to stay up, said Dardai. “Then we can pack up,” said the Hungarian. “We need leaders,” he added. In the next few days, he will find out what role he will give Boateng through a conversation. The 36-year-old Boateng had played a decisive role in the relegation battle last year under the then rescuer coach Felix Magath.
In the meantime, Dardai had already made friends with life without the Bundesliga circus. “I’ve always said, ‘Now I’m retired.’ I got used to it. I didn’t know that there was such a beautiful life. Without the stress. I also thought that after two weeks I would go crazy,” he said. Instead, he watched his three sons’ football games – Marton is now back on his team – and bought a dog.
More precisely a Maltipoo. “Just like dad”, is the four-legged friend: “He bites. No, he’s a dream.” the Hungarian joked, admitting: “I’ve become a completely different person. A friend said to me: ‘If you buy a dog, you become a completely different person.’ I laughed at him. But it’s really like that. It’s a dream. Pal Dardai is a nice person now. Yesterday I agreed, today the poor dog suffered because I left him at home. My wife can’t travel away, she has to stay home.”