Why he still regrets the offer of Bayern

Mr. Schäfer, what do you connect with the blue mountains?

Winfried Schäfer: This is an excellent coffee! The Blue Mountains Coffee was the best I have ever drunk in my life. That was as a national coach of Jamaica during my time. That was a great time. We trained on a training plant with Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world. We were successful as a team, they have USA beat with Klinsmann as a national coach and are to the final of the Gold Cup (Note d. Red.: Central America Championship) collapsed.

This coffee is one of the experiences that you have had as a football bumper in your time. You trained the national teams from Jamaica, Thailand and Cameroon. In Germany, they are primarily known as the KSC coach. How do you actually see yourself?

Shepherd: Honestly: I would never have expected my career to take this way. I come out of the Eifel, I am totally close to home and a child of the Bundesliga. But the step abroad was necessary because two crazy stations at VfB Stuttgart and at Tennis Borussia Berlin my call in Germany was completely battered. After that there were no more offers from here. I then accepted the job as a national coach Cameruns, from then on one to another.

In time as a national coach of Kameruns, one of the craziest episodes of her just published biography fell. Before the semi-finals in Africa Cup 2002, her goalkeeper coach was arrested by the police on the field due to supposed voodoo magic.

shepherd: This is a completely crazy story. Before the kick -off of our game, my goalkeeper coach and I watched the other semi -finals on the square, which was shown on the screen in the stadium. Suddenly police officers came up to us, fell on my colleagues and pushed him down. I shouted at her not to touch myself. And suddenly came a policeman who held a tuft of grass in his hand that we supposedly enchanted. My goalkeeper coach had to undress except for his underpants, handcuffs were put on. The audience in Mali – we played against the host – hollowed out. I then went into our cabin and told our general secretary that he should write on a poster: « Mali has taken the honor of Cameroon with feet. » We then went to the pitch.

They then won the game against Mali 3-0, just like the Africa Cup.

shepherd: Basically, Mali did us a favor. My team went into play with such anger, a unity that I have rarely experienced. Mali had no chance. In the final against Senegal we were also a bit lucky because the game was decided in penalty shootout. But that is part of it.

At the same time, they experienced the blackest hour of their coaching career with Cameroon. Her games Marc-Vivien Foe collapsed on the square at the Confederations Cup 2003 and died.

shepherd: This story broke our heart. Marc was our best player, a role model in every respect, our secret captain. In the semi -finals against Colombia he was on the pitch. Before that we had spared him because he didn’t feel good and was also in bed for a few days. During the game, I kept asking whether he was doing well – and he shouted at my thumb that everything was good. In one scene he lost the ball, ran about ten meters back and folded together. Very few noticed that on the field. There was a lot of turmoil, Marc was brought off the field with a stretcher. I painted it over the cheek with my hand. I wanted to tell him: I’m going to be again. Later I found out that he was already dead at the time.

It was later found that Foé had a hereditary previous illness of the heart muscle. A cardiac arrest led to death.

shepherd: There was no defibrillator on the edge of the field, as is often the case today. After winning the game, my players went to the cabin celebrated. I told them: « Guys, do it slowly – we are waiting for Marc. And when he is there, the post really goes off. » When I went into the cabin to which Marc was brought, I saw his wife and mother bent over him and cried. I will never forget this picture as long as I live. And in front of the cabin, Marc’s son played, he was about ten years at the time, football with one of the referees. Less, he didn’t know that his father was dead. That torn my heart, but also everyone else from the team. It was a shock for all football.

At the same time, a few days later, the Confederation Cup was due to host France. It was amazing after such an incident.

shepherd: FIFA had given us the choice. We asked Marc’s wife if we should play. She said: Marc would have wanted it that way. And the majority of my players also wanted to go to the pitch. In retrospect, you are always smarter. Our final opponents, the French, were also completely finished. Marc had played for Lens and Lyon for a long time, they knew him too. Our 0-1 defeat was only a marginal note on this day.

Another station was Thailand, where they work as a national coach. During this time their hearts flew to them. There is a video in which a school class sings a song of praise in your name, in the middle of the classroom a picture of you was placed. What was going on there?

Schäfer: The President of the Thai Association had contacted me. He still knew me because he had lent us the money in 2002 on arrival to the World Cup in Japan so that we could refuel our plane. In Thailand, which is a dwarf in terms of football, we tried to include all clubs, put it on the youth and were quite successful. It was all the more astonishing when you consider that we have devastatingly bad training places.

At the same time, a qualification game in Oman would almost have failed because the association had forgotten the passports of ten players.

shepherd: My assistant has become more and more nervous at the airport. Then he came to me and confessed to me that ten passports are still slumbering in the association center. I then instructed my driver to do it. He did that – and then stood there in front of closed doors. The ten players only flew the next day and were completely tired. After that I wanted to throw down. The president of the association knew me to stay something.

In Azerbaijan, at Baku FC, they had to do with the Mammadov owner family. That was also special.

shepherd: Hafiz Mammadov is a businessman who has made his money with oil drilling. He was one of the richest men in the country, but with him the collaboration was good. The problem was his family, who always interfered in the shops. His brother was our sports director and, for example, overlooked that our new striker should not have been used in a game. There is a story about Mammadov’s son when he stayed in a hotel in the Caucasus. In the restaurant he told the employees that he was in the mood for a bear steak and pointed to a bear who was connected in front of the house. He didn’t care about the assertions of the employees that the bear was not intended to eat. In the end he got his bear steak. When we were later in the hotel with the club, the employees confirmed this story to me.

Would you like to train again in Germany?

shepherd: Sure, of course. The Bundesliga is the highest of feelings. But as I said: After the stations in Stuttgart and at Tebe Berlin, no one has ever reported to me again.

Is that still hurting?

Schäfer: Of course. Above all, because the concerns are not rationally understandable: it is too old, it was too long from the Bundesliga, he no longer knows the Bundesliga. Nothing could be wrong. I would have needed an agent at that time, that was a mistake. But now I have taken a life path with which I am also very happy.

At the KSC Have you developed talents such as Kahn, Sternkopf, Scholl. The end hurt her, the friendship with President Roland Schmider broke. Are you reconciled with the club again?

shepherd: I met Roland Schmider again in a game. But the end back then was just very bitter. At that time we were in a shortage of relegation after great success and I should explain myself. That was not enough for the decision -makers around Schmider at the time. I then told you: If you release me, I will soon have a new job – but you get off to the 3. League. That is exactly what happened. I still pursue the KSC intensively and hope that they will create the climb.

There was even an offer from FC Bayern during her KSC time. Uli Hoeneß had called her. Do you regret having struck the offer?

shepherd: Yes, of couse! (laughs) You have to be so stupid to strike out an offer from FC Bayern. Hoeneß called at the time and I thought he wanted to have a player again. I asked: « Who should  » be? » In the meantime I said that FC Bayern was actually FC Baden Munich, so many players of us always went to Munich. But Hoeneß wanted me to come. But the KSC was my club back then. At that time Hoeneß was looking for a successor to Otto Rehhagel. In the end, Giovanni Trapattoni returned.

You have been a technical director at Ghana since the end of January – the next adventure. Why can’t you let go?

shepherd: I love football! I love promoting young people, building teams and standing in the field. In Ghana it is not a coaching position for the first time, I support national coach Otto Addo. The team is not in a good phase, but we get it baked again.

Have you set a retirement age?

shepherd: No! I feel wonderful, I have a new hip and I’m fit in my head, that’s the most important thing. And I enjoy the job. Then why should I stop?