The 68-year-old Felix Magath should somehow keep Hertha BSC in the Bundesliga. “Are they completely crazy now?” everyone asks. The master trainer has been out for ten years. To make matters worse, he gets Corona and unintentionally gives the capital a holiday – Fotheringham Day.
Football shows its magic on a spring Saturday in the German capital. After a long winter and a fall into the relegation regions, Hertha BSC surprisingly wins 3-0 (1-0) against TSG Hoffenheim and climbs a place in the table. After the game, biographies meet for a brief moment of happiness and contentment and then go their separate ways again. Someone is sitting on a bench watching the fans pouring out of the stadium with a big grin.
The tour groups of the Scots, who came for “a party” and are leaving as Hertha fans. He sees the happily drunk Atzen, who first want to look under the Scotsman’s kilt and then hug them, and he sees the little boy, who proudly carries the blue and white flag, waving in the direction of the S-Bahn. He hears the dialogue of two friends talking about the wonderful day. Good weather and Hertha won. He sees the fans holding onto their Berliner Kindl and replaying the game’s scenes in disbelief, hugging, laughing and then going their own way. For a moment, everyone is united here at the Axel-Kruse-Rondell at the entrance to the S-Bahn. It wasn’t like that for far too long. But now they are together and laughing.
From Dundee’s council housing
The one who brings people together on this day is called Mark Fotheringham, is 38 years old and comes from Dundee, high up in north-east Scotland. As an active footballer, he has played for eleven clubs in 17 years, as a coach he has been working as an assistant since 2016. In the third and second German leagues and in a lower division Scottish league. Early on he put everything on a coaching career, also because he met Felix Magath at FC Fulham in 2014. He takes meticulous notes after each session, seeing the positives in the chaos surrounding the London club’s relegation and the German grinder’s brief tenure. He’s impressed with what he’s learning and with the former champion coach.
“If I ever get my first job as number one,” he says in 2017 about his years of travel as a player, “I will have some aces up my sleeve. It was good for me. Everything happens for a reason and I think I was destined for all those stations. At the end of the day, it’s like this: I’m a guy from Dundee’s council houses. I can speak German fluently and I know some pretty important people in German football.”
Just like Felix Magath, who is committed to a relegation battle as a rescuer after Hertha slipped and whose first days in Berlin are accompanied by great attention. Hardly anyone can understand how Managing Director Fredi Bobic came up with this idea. The public belongs to the 68-year-old and the Fotheringham training ground. He treats the players with respect, knows every nickname and demands a lot.
“We are Hertha Berlin”
Then Magath has to go into isolation, Bobic even believes that Hertha will soon be in heaven. That will not happen. Hertha as a Gallic village that is really being held together by resistance from the outside world for the first time this season. Suddenly everything that happened doesn’t matter: the weeks of decline, the renewed concentration of the absurdities of this football club, which falls from one misfortune to the next, in which every decision seems to be a wrong decision.
A club that is no longer even mildly smiled at from the outside, but almost exclusively covered with sheer mockery: Because they had managed to significantly worsen a squad with almost 400 million of an erratic investor who wants to be loved and causes trouble whose fans no longer only have to contend with the blemish of the Olympic Stadium, but also with the “Big City Club” label. They actually expect little from their club. The history of the club, which threatens to celebrate its 130th birthday as a relegated team, is too unsettled.
“We are Hertha Berlin. We are the capital of Germany. We are very proud that we work here in this club. It is a traditional club,” says Fotheringham on the day after the 122nd birthday of club icon Hanne Sobek. After the victory, he pounded his chest frantically. A mostly hollow gesture, it seems real to him. Because everything that happens happens for a reason. He catches up and says something in Scottish German that no one has said before about an Olympic Stadium that is still sparsely filled: “It’s incredible how you pushed us from the start. I’m just interested when we get over 25,000. Then it is ‘Hell’ go. It’s unbelievable in this stadium.”
Space gives Hertha space
When “hell” gets going for the first time that day, Fotheringham stands there and very slowly turns to striker coach Vedad Ibisevic. Niklas Stark scored shortly before half-time after a Plattenhardt free-kick, but the referee ruled it was offside. The whole stadium is waiting for the VAR. It takes forever. A lot is happening at the same time, word is slowly getting around that the goal will count. First substitute Kevin Prince-Boateng gets Peter Pekarik, talks to him, tells him that everything is fine and forward attacker Ishak Belfodil sneaks in the direction of the ball, which Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann prepared for the free kick. The Hertha attacker grabs the ball, runs in the direction of the center circle and referee Daniel Schlager draws a rectangle with his fingers. cheers. And Fotheringham stretches his arms in the air, then frantically taps his forehead with his fingers. “Stay clear,” he seems to be signaling.
“I’m just Mark, I’m just a simple guy.”
(Photo: IMAGO/Contrast)
The Berliners remain clear in the second half, scoring two more goals after Plattenhardt free-kicks. Hoffenheim can think of little, they push their defense a little higher with every set piece, so that in the end they are only a few meters away from the executor at 3:0. It doesn’t help them. Up front they only come to a real conclusion once, otherwise there is little to see from the contender for a Champions League place despite a lot of possession. In midfield, Santiago Ascacibar and even Lucas Tousart clear away any danger. And with every goal, Ibisevic dances around Fotheringham, makes the saw and then, as a reward, gets a hug from the coach for a day.
Against Hoffenheim, Hertha is not only lucky in the 1-0 scene. After a strong opening phase, the guests gain control of the game in the middle of the first half. Once again, the Berliners have not been able to make a profit from good chances and so everything is set up for another defeat. Especially when national player David Raum enters the penalty area from the left and Marco Richter does what Hertha players have done so often in recent months: He offers the opponent a penalty, but he misses the opportunity, doesn’t call the foul, runs further and the attack petered out.
Bobic didn’t know him
It is a moment that can determine the future of a club and it tilts in favor of Hertha, where Fotheringham is in his coaching zone, chasing the balls, directing them and even taking the mascot Herthinho with them in the early stages, signaling to him that everyone is giving their all have to. “He’s amazing, that guy,” says Niklas Stark after the game. “He has energy, that’s awesome.” The former international not only scores a goal, but also convinces in a surprising role in front of the defence. Hertha played in a 4-1-4-1. What the Scot doesn’t care about.
At least that’s what he claims. “I don’t focus that much on tactics. I focus on distances. Sir Alex Ferguson once said he plays 4-4-2, but the 4-4-2 diamond or that was 4-3-3. I work for a well-known player now coach in world football,” he said after the game. “I’m not interested in tactics. That’s the way it is.” And it’s successful. For the moment that Felix Magath, the old tinkerer, must have observed in his hotel room with a mild smile. Of course, the 68-year-old is somehow there too, but this day is not about him, even if he gives a digital speech at half-time and is constantly connected to his assistant. Rather, it is about who he has chosen for this role.
The one who was ridiculed as a coach pensioner surprised everyone, even Fredi Bobic. “When Felix Magath told me who he wanted to bring in, I had to do some research first,” he said after the game about Fotheringham: “No matter where I heard anything about him, he was described as inspiring and authentic. He’s someone , who can take people with him and I’m happy for him.”
Fotheringham also surprised in his home country. “Scots used to be one of the top coaches in football – Matt Busby, Jock Stein and Sir Alex Ferguson. Honestly, you don’t expect that very often these days,” legendary Scottish football commentator Derek Rae told ntv. en. Rae fell in love with the Bundesliga early on and now lives in the USA, where he comments for ESPN and lends his voice to the FIFA series. He also celebrates Fotherinhgam Day. He says: “Last week Mark Fotheringham wasn’t an issue in Scotland either, but now you definitely know what happened.”
The fans in front of the stadium can hardly believe all this. At sunset they are the last ones in the parking lot in front of the Olympic Stadium. They hear Witt’s “Goldenen Reiter” and sing along. And if you listen closely, you will hear them singing about the “Golden Savior” and the “Lord of this City”. Or maybe not. Who can say on this Fotheringham day in the capital?