Ex-Kickers coach Hollerbach is back in Würzburg

Bernd Hollerbach is back in Würzburg. “I’m fine,” says the football coach under contract with the Belgian first division club Royal Excel Mouscron on the phone. “I go shopping for my parents,” says the Würzburg native, who grew up in Rimpar. Health, many people are becoming aware of these days, is a great asset. The 50-year-old Hollerbach knows even better than many others what he is talking about.

It was around the turn of the year when pneumonia literally forced him to his knees. “I didn’t know anything like that, I was always healthy. I don’t think I was sick for 30 years. Suddenly I could hardly go to the kitchen at home. I had chills and a fever.” A late cold, the doctors said. Hollerbach has rarely spared himself. “I am not one of the wails and therefore I haven’t talked much about my illness.” If the course of the disease in Covid-19 patients is reported, he can understand their suffering. “I’m physically fit. But such pneumonia can really blow your mind.” It is now all the more important to “abide by the rules and keep calm.”

Almost two months off

Hollerbach’s forced break at the beginning of the year lasted almost two months. Many weeks in which he could not look after his team. He missed the training camp in Spain. “I expect a lot: If someone has something on their feet, they can still train. You have to bite your teeth. But if you are infectious, it’s different. It’s also about protecting the others. That’s how it was it with me. ” Just a month after Hollerbach finally recovered from his pneumonia, a new type of disease in the lungs has now slowed down all of world football. Belgium’s league is the first top division in Europe, in which an early end to the season is now openly up for debate. The Pro League board of directors has already decided to end the season prematurely, but the general assembly of the league has yet to vote on it. “TV money in Belgium plays a rather subordinate role,” says Hollerbach: “Ghost games make less sense.” And in general a clear cut seems to him to be a logical one at the moment: “Who knows when we can play again?”

The Uefa puts pressure

It remains to be seen whether the season for Hollerbach and his Mouscron team will end in tenth. “Uefa is putting a lot of pressure on,” says the coach. The European association is threatening to exclude the Belgian clubs from European Cup competitions if the season is not over. “However, this income is absolutely necessary for the top clubs,” says Hollerbach. He does not dare to predict how many clubs in Belgium will survive the Corona crisis. “Many clubs live from the transfer proceeds,” he says. And the player market in particular should not boom as much in the future as in the past. “Football will change”, the former first division kicker is convinced, who as head coach led the Würzburg Kickers from the regional league to the second division in two years after taking office in 2015, in 2017 after only one season in the lower house, a winless second half of the season and relegation to the third division, but declared his resignation with the red pants.