Will there soon be a rest in the Bundestag?
Union Berlin manager flirts with Wagenknecht party
January 10, 2024, 10:12 a.m
Oliver Ruhnert is an exceptional football manager. He works at Union Berlin in the capital, but is still active in politics in his native Sauerland. In an interview, he does not rule out a move into federal politics.
Where is Oliver Ruhnert headed? The Union Berlin manager is still under contract with the Köpenick club, but rumors about a farewell keep doing the rounds. The 52-year-old is one of the main people responsible for the incredible fairy tale that the once smaller Berlin club has written in recent years. Not only since the sporting decline this season has it been clear that he won’t stay in Köpenick forever.
“As a manager, I won’t be in the Bundesliga for ten years,” he said back in October 2022. At that time, the current crisis was far from being foreseeable. Quite the opposite: At that time, Union was on the way to the Champions League under the coaching legend Urs Fischer, as it turned out at the end of the 2022/2023 season.
In addition to his work in Berlin, Ruhnert also stayed in his homeland, the Sauerland, over the years. There he is the parliamentary group leader for Die Linke in the city council of Iserlohn and there you can see him as a referee in the district league on some weekends. In an interview with “Sport Bild”, Ruhnert flirts with Sahra Wagenknecht’s newly founded party and does not even rule out a move into federal politics. “It’s no secret that Sahra Wagenknecht and I know each other very well and that I value her,” he says.
“Don’t wait another five years”
When asked about a possible move to political Berlin, Ruhnert added: “I’m aware that I can’t reconcile that with my current job at Union Berlin. That’s why this option only exists for me after football. But it’s also clear: If you want to get into federal politics, you shouldn’t wait another five years.”
A change to federal politics would be tantamount to an economic step backwards for the successful manager. But that has never influenced his decisions, explains Ruhnert. He says: “If that was my priority, I would no longer be at Union.”
Until that happens, however, for Ruhnert and Union Berlin, in the Bundesliga season that starts again this weekend, it is all about the sporting survival of the premier class participant, who has fallen to 15th place. For the Köpenickers it happens on Saturday (3:30 p.m. / Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de) to SC Freiburg.
He is very confident that the new coach Nenad Bjelica will be able to stay in the league, says Ruhnert, who denies any tiredness in office. “We recently got six points from the last three league games. The trend was clearly upwards. We no longer have the constant pressure of three games in one week.”