Uwe Klimaschefski was still a coach from the old days. He had his players run backwards and do somersaults. When he stood on the sidelines at FC Homburg for the fifth time 30 years ago, it became clear to everyone involved that his methods were slowly becoming outdated.
“He makes us run backwards for minutes during training. Then we also do somersaults.” Homburg’s new signing Frank Lelle looked at the journalists in disbelief 30 years ago when he reported on his impressions of the Saarland second division team’s training. But they just laughed – and thought to themselves: Maybe you should have informed yourself better before you moved! Because FC Homburg’s coach these days was one of the greatest originals in German football, Uwe Klimaschefski, for the fifth time in his career. And he also just laughed at the players who felt they were “treated like little children” by him. Because he has never been different in his career.
And yet his “stone age training methods” (player Daniel Jurgeleit) ultimately had something to do with the fact that Uwe Klimaschefski had to vacate the coaching chair for the very last time in his career just a few months later. The time of the old school trainers was finally over. And that despite the fact that one of his players, Franco Foda, once said about him somewhere between admiration and fear: “Anyone who lasts a year under Klimaschefski has taken a big step further in life and no longer needs to be afraid of anything.” And that in turn has a lot to do with “Klima’s” own biography.
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Even as a player, the man from Bremerhaven knew how to actively take his fate into his own hands. When he was looking for a club at the start of the newly created Bundesliga in 1963, several clubs showed interest. Klimaschefski was spoiled for choice. Inwardly, he had already decided on Hertha after an offer from Berlin, but since he had already made an appointment with the president of Saarbrücken, he wanted to keep it.
The only problem: the representatives from Hertha (President Holst) and from Saarbrücken were registered for the same day. Klimaschefski remembers: “It happened as it had to happen. Suddenly the doorbell rang and the other negotiating partner was at the door. Mr. Holst then had to hide in the bathroom until I canceled the Saarbrücken team. After that, I was a Herthaner!”
Klimaschefski is spurred on by unbridled ambition
During his career, Klimaschefski had always struggled with misalignment of his legs. When he was later unemployed as a trainer, he used this time wisely. During an operation he had his bow legs straightened (“The one who tunnels me will get two shots in the leg in return”). While he was still a player, his teammates teased him so much that he tied his knees together with sheets at night. Now he was in the mood for jokes again: “If you meet someone with straight legs, it’ll be me.”
The coach Klimaschefski was both feared and loved by his players. Understandably, not all professionals liked his always straightforward, open manner. Someone he addressed directly had to swallow hard: “What does he want, money? He should be happy if he can breathe in oxygen for free on our site.”
Klimaschefski was spurred on by an unbridled ambition, as Homburg’s former player, Harald Diener, remembers: “When our coach and his team are behind, a game often lasts three hours. When you come home, the fillets are so hard that you can’t eat them can’t eat anymore.” The Bremerhaven resident took defeats personally. After losing a game at an indoor tournament, he barked at his players: “Now dress warmly! Now I’m going to tear your ass off! Up to the seam!” Many a time he sat in the press room after a defeat, looked briefly at the journalists and then hurried away: “I can’t answer any further questions. I have to go to my players now. They are so blind that they can’t find the way from the dressing room to the bus not found.”
When a journalist once wanted to know when the coach would sell the next players, Klimaschefski replied: “When the scrap prices rise again!” He liked to be verbally harsh with his professionals: “Our players can play 50-meter passes: 5 meters wide and 45 meters high.”
The training is moved to the shower
The coach’s jokes with new players were also notorious. During a training session, Klimaschefski got a space roller and gave the command: “So, boys, we’re doing an endurance test today. Everyone pulls the roller 400 meters. We’ll close the holes that the track and field athletes tore open with their shoes. The new guy here begins.” The roller rolled well for the first 100 meters. The ambition not to embarrass oneself was strong. After 200 meters, the newcomer became so small that he could no longer see the grinning players on the other side. He reached the finish almost on all fours. “Well done,” the trainer praised him, “but I saw that the exercise was a bit too difficult and also too dangerous. The roller almost rolled over you. We’re stopping!”
Uwe Klimaschefski once had a Spanish test player juggle the ball in the shower in full football gear: “Let’s see how you play in the rain!” And when Dieter Müller returned from Switzerland to 1. FC Saarbrücken in the Bundesliga, Klimaschefski still saw a lot of work ahead for his striker: “He brought a lot of Swiss bacon with him from his Grasshopper trip.”
There was a time when Uwe Klimaschefski in Homburg basically had the freedom of fools and was even allowed to run a red light with impunity. When a player complained about him to his president these days and said: “The climate called us assholes!”, the Homburg CEO didn’t make long speeches, but said briefly and succinctly: “Yes, what? You are assholes too!” When FC Homburg knocked Bayern out of the DFB Cup, a press representative asked Klimaschefski to please explain to the audience where Homburg is. The coach didn’t have to think for long: “That’s not necessary, we now know that in Munich.”
His great connection to the club officials saved Klimaschefski from many a difficult situation with his players. But when the big successes failed to materialize the fifth time in Homburg, the time had come for the coach. A lot of professionals are said to have breathed a sigh of relief back then. But football fans have never forgotten Klimaschefski and his extravagant sayings: “I suggested to my players that they play barefoot and with long toenails. That way they should have the best grip on the snow.”