PressSplit
Only nine months on the sidelines at KAS Eupen in Belgium: Florian Kohfeldt. © IMAGO/Photo News
Coach and club want to help each other to experience better days again. The only question is: how good is the Darmstadt squad?
This Monday at eleven o’clock, the new coach of Bundesliga relegated team Darmstadt 98 will be presented in the press room at Böllenfalltor. Sports director Paul Fernie chose Florian Kohfeldt as the successor to Torsten Lieberknecht, who resigned last Sunday in frustration and exhaustion. The club did not provide any information about the length of the contract. The 41-year-old made a good name for himself as the former head coach of Werder Bremen, when he almost coached the northern Germans into the Europa League in the 2018/19 season.
The football coach, who previously studied sports and health sciences at the University of Bremen, was also centrally responsible for Bremen’s relegation. In May 2021, he was released before the last matchday in an act of desperation by the overwhelmed club management and was unsuccessfully replaced by veteran Thomas Schaaf. In the previous season, Kohfeldt had managed to stay in the league with his team in a nerve-wracking effort in the relegation match against 1. FC Heidenheim.
Closely connected to Werder
For the Siegen native, who moved to Delmenhorst in the Bremen area at the age of four, where he later played goal for Jahn Delmenhorst and Werder III, Darmstadt is his first job in the second division. This also shows a certain humility on the part of the once celebrated man who was named DFB Coach of the Year in 2018 after his initial successes. He now has the chance to get his stalled coaching career back on track and at the same time be of help to the struggling Darmstadt team.
Before his professional coaching career, Kohfeldt coached Werder’s youth team and the U23 team in the third division and served as Viktor Skripnik’s assistant in the Bundesliga. After his time at Werder, he managed to avoid relegation in 2022 with VfL Wolfsburg, who were in danger of relegation at the time, but his contract was surprisingly terminated by the club after the end of the season. Most recently, Kohfeldt worked for KAS Eupen in Belgium, but after a strong start in mid-March, he resigned after just around nine months and moved back to his family in Bremen. He is very passionate about the Hanseatic city and “his” club, Werder Bremen.
In Darmstadt, Kohfeldt was greeted on the Darmstadt 98 homepage with the Hessian “Gude”, which he will certainly have to get used to. A dry “Moin” suits him better. Darmstadt players, fans and media can expect a very communicative manager who is focused on productive cooperation, much like his predecessor Lieberknecht did and was highly respected for his interpersonal skills. Like Lieberknecht, Kohfeldt also tends to react impulsively in his coaching zone. Just like Lieberknecht, however, he has also learned over the years to hold back in this area at times.
Darmstadt sports director Paul Fernie is very optimistic that Kohfeldt will get the faltering South Hesse team back on track: “He brings experience, personality and the know-how to give our team stability and tap into its potential. Florian convinced us in the discussions with a clear plan and his enthusiasm for the task. We are pleased that we were able to get him excited about our club.”
What can the squad do?
Kohfeldt prefers a dominant, offensive style of play based on neat passing. He was considered Fernie’s favorite from the start. After his signing, he said, according to the Lilies’ media bulletin, that he wanted to have numerous individual discussions first. He was “particularly impressed by how fans and officials stuck together even in challenging moments such as last season.” His immediate goal: “Together we want to ensure that we regain our sporting stability with courageous football.”
It is very difficult to assess whether the current squad of the 98ers is capable of doing this. Fernie, who has only been in charge of the Lilies since April, brought in a total of eleven new players in the summer transfer window, none of whom have been able to convince Kohfeldt’s predecessor Lieberknecht in a consistent manner. The Englishman is also under pressure early on. He accepted Lieberknecht’s offer to resign without much objection. It was probably inevitable.
After the disastrous relegation season and the botched start to the second division season with only one of twelve possible points, there is great uncertainty at the “Bölle”. On Saturday (1 p.m./Sky) there will be a basement duel between second-to-last and last-to-last: Darmstadt 98 against Eintracht Braunschweig. Not a bad chance of a successful start for Florian Kohfeldt.
