Originally an amateur footballer from Berlin, I work full-time as a football coach in Finland since 2015. I have the UEFA A coaching license, a "Professional Football Management" diploma, masters degrees in philosophy and in psychology, over two decades experience as a football coach and four decades as a player.
I also have much experience in other club functions, such as Head of Coaching, club office manager, board member, referee, team leader and pretty much every task that can happen in a football club. On top of that, I'm an instructor for coaching license courses for the Finnish Football Association.
Living in Finland is a nice experience, particularly the beautiful nature. Green forests and blue waters are important to me. My Finnish language skills (acquired autodidactically) are good. While I have been and am constantly employed, feel free to tempt me with a spectacular offer.
This website offers you information about me which might or might not be interesting to you. Let's start with 22* of my football coaching skills (in alphabetical order):
*22, because according to Gary Lineker, 22 players fight for the ball for 90 minutes, and at the end the Germans wins.
If you want to develop good football players, you first have to teach the kids to love football. Without this love, no football future. Players who love football, want to train, want to learn, want to play. I love football and I show that to my players all the time. After that comes time and patience. Juniors football is not result-oriented football. Juniors football is about learning and developing.
I'm the type of coach that I would like to have had as a junior player. Peter Stöger said during his time at 1. FC Köln in the Bundesliga: "Football is a game. A game has to make fun." True! No matter whether Bundesliga or Sunday League. If you don't have fun playing football, why do you play? If football causes you stress or bores you, you quit. The more fun, the more serious. Keyword: Flow!
Finland has a big "drop-out"-problem. I'm not surprised. Finnish football trainings aren't fun. Everyone is too strict and serious. Young kids get positional tactical training and say "I can't go forward, because I'm a defender." - "Is something happening here where we both stand?" - "No." - "Do you have fun here?" - "No." - "Is it boring?" - "Yes." - "Go up where the ball is!" - "Yay." Kid runs up in joy. So easy.
I see coaches yelling at their junior players as if they would play in Champions League. I see juniors sitting 70 of 80 minutes on the bench, because they are "not good enough". How are players supposed to get better without playing time? All you learn on the bench is bench life. You need to be on the field to develop. The less developed your skillz are, the more playing time you need.
I don't want to only develop good players, but good human beings. Ethical values are important. Coaches have to be role models for kids, on and off the pitch. I support my players, no matter what age. Players understand that I offer them 100%. And they want to give that back. To me. To their teammates. To themselves. We create a symbiotic effect. I love football. You love football. We love football. We live football.
Aristotle's concept of phronesis (prudence) guides my decisions. Between two extremes, striving towards the middle between both is the wise choice. Football example: Too much fitness training causes a lack of technical skills. Too much technical training causes a lack of physical skills. Both needs to be included in an appropriate amount, depending on the age and situation of the players.
Football happens on the field. Coaching isn't a question of theory. It's a practical matter. I don't think about football theoretically. I think about it practically. I think about the game. Like a player. Because players play the games, not coaches. No players, no game. A lot of my coaching decisions draw from my huge experience as a player. Theoretical courses are one thing. Field experience another.
Experience is important. You need to understand what happens on the field, why, and what effect it has. When you lead 2-0, and the opponent scores a goal. What do you do? Take out your tactical board? No. That's now a psychological issue. The players need to find the right solutions on the field. And it's the coaches job to provide their players with as many possible solutions to as many scenarios as possible.
I value sportsmanship and fairplay. I support the #kannustamua campaign from SPL and am convinced that top level football evolves when there is a sufficiently large base at the grassroots level. All players who want, need a chance and deserve support. It's easy to only work with already developed players or talents. The challenge is to work with players who still need to learn lot. Never give up on a player.
I like to work with adults. It's fun and interesting. On the other hand, it's also fulfilling to work with young kids and teach them about footballer. My personal interest shifted during the last years from mens to womens football. Current womens football reminds me of the football style I fell in love with back in the days. Women play good football, are creative, understand things fast and are open for new ideas.
To end this short journey into my philosophical football mindset, I pick up on chapter 7. The legendary German footballer Alfred Preißler once said: "All theory in life is grey - what matters is on the pitch." That's how I see it. At the end it's all about one thing: good football and what that could mean. I can only speak from a certain point of view like Obi-Wan Kenobi. May the Football be with you.
Im Kopf des Trainers Podcast Episode 85 (German), 25.12.2021 (Link)
05.12.2021
Bunteto.com (Hungarian), 06.12.2021 (Link)
29.04.2021
Transfermarkt.de (German), 29.04.2021 (Link)
April 2021
11 Freunde (German, print only), April 2021 (Link)
19.12.2020
BBC (English), 19.12.2020 (Link)
31.08.2020
Lapin Kansa (Finnish), 31.08.2020 (Link)
Keski-Pohjanmaa (Finnish), 23.08.2018 (Link)
YouTube video (Finnish) 10.05.2018 (Link)
Karjalainen (Finnish), 24.08.2015 (Link)
No Dize Magazine (English, print only), 2013 (Link)
Instructor license for "Health football"
Instructor licenses for FVS-, IKV- and UEFA C-courses
UEFA A coaching license
UEFA B coaching license
Professional Football Management diploma
Master degrees in psychology, philosophy and media studies
Diplomas "Internet Editor", "Internet Programmer", "Portal Manager"
Training as Merchant for Office Communication (professional school)
High-school diploma
Job: Club coach.
Tasks: camps, events, coaching courses, talent school, morning trainings, health football, coaching instructor.
Teams: D-boys (2010-11), E-boys (2013), Bambini-girls (2018-19), hobby women.
Noteworthy: I started the new "health football" project for the club.
Job: Head of Coaching.
Tasks: headcoach, coach, talent school, morning trainings, coaching instructor, camps.
Teams: B-girls (2005-07), C-girls (2008-09), 8v8 women, men's team, hobby men.
Noteworthy: I started the first adult teams in the history of the club.
Job: Head of Coaching (2017-2019), Head of Office (2019-2020).
Tasks: headcoach, coach, talent school, morning trainings, tournaments, camps, club office.
Teams: C-girls (2004-06), D-girls (2007-08), C-boys (2005), third men's team.
Noteworthy: I founded a third mens' team as the "show" team for my UEFA A license course.
Job: Head coach.
Team: Men's team in the Finnish Third league.
Noteworthy: I'm the only coach in history who won a Joensuu-derby against Jippo. Video.
Sidejob: Coach.
Task: Coaching the student sports association's weekly football group.
Voluntary: Playing coach.
Team: mixed team in the local 6v6 hobby league.
Sidejob: Coach, social worker, consultant and Erasmus+ instructor.
Task: Football coaching for refugees and immigrants, futsal workshop.
Teams: various teams in the local 6v6 hobby league.
Voluntary: Playing coach, (since 2011:) vice president.
Team: Men's team in the Finnish Fifth league.
Noteworthy: I was awarded "Keltik-legend" status in 2022 at their 20th anniversary gala.
Job: Head coach.
Teams: Women's team in the Finnish Second league, D-girls (2003).
Noteworthy: Women: Best season in the club's history (until then). Girls: Won the Eastern Finland league and cup.
Side job: Head coach, playing coach.
Teams: Men's team (Kreisliga A), 32+ seniors' team (11v11).
Noteworthy: I left 2/3 through the season due to my new job in Finland.
Job: Record seller.
Tasks: Selling vinyl records, customer service, handling and processing of payments etc.
Voluntary: First playing coach, later head coach.
Teams: Men's team (Kreisliga B, C), D-girls.
Noteworthy: I coached the team to the first promotion in the club's history.
Job: Private customer sales and strategical planner at a health insurance company.
Tasks: Theoretical planning of marketing campaigns and database work.
Noteworthy: If you read from top-to-bottom: I first worked at the AOK Berlin, then took 5 years unpaid holidays to go studying due the company's financial difficulties. Upon my return, the company was bankrupt and taken over by the AOK Nordost. It was a very unsatisyfing job experience and eventually we signed a mutual "termination agreement".
Job: Student assistant for the ”Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation”.
Tasks: The CEIP helped students who wanted to start their own companies. We planned, attended and fulfilled events, workshops and tradefairs.
Noteworthy: Working at the university was a very satisfying assignment and my team did such a good job that our contracts got prolonged for a bonus semester.
Job: Trainee and radio show host.
Tasks: For my studies I had to do a volunteering at a media company. I did that during my exchange studies in Joensuu for the newly found radio station Oi fm. I had two radio shows on Monday evenings.
Noteworthy: I continued to deliver pre-recorded monthly radio shows for the station until 2010, due to popular demand. Unfortunately, Oi fm closed on 4th January 2015.
Job: See AOK Berlin.
Voluntary: playing coach, Secretary to the Board, teamleader, caretaker.
Team: Men's team in the Berlin Companies League.
Noteworthy: This task was connected to my main job at the AOK Berlin (see below).
Job: Internet Supervisor, Intranet Editor.
Tasks: I was in charge of the companies website and e-mail communication. I also created content for the companies intranet. On top of that I assisted in various marketing events and campaigns.
Noteworthy: The practical parts of my 1998-2001 education (see above) happened at the AOK Berlin. I had no intentions to work for them after my education finished, but in 2000, I was asked to be the playing coach of their companies football team. In return I was offered a cool position in the companies marketing department. How this eventually ended was explained above.
Voluntary: Chairman, playing coach, referee, caretaker.
Team: My own founded team in Berlin's University League.
Noteworthy: After 2000, we continued as X-men, but I didn't have an official role there due to me being with the BSG.
Job: Community service (instead of mandatory army service).
Tasks: gardener, kitchen help, van and tractor driver, caretaker, janitor, group support and more.
Noteworthy: This was a great time working (and living) in a hostel in the middle of the forest in North Germany. When I re-visited the place in 2009, there were only ruins left. In 2014, the municipality tore down all remaining buildings. It's now just forest and meadows. And memories.
I cannot provide exact statistics for my playing and coaching careers. Nowadays, everything is tracked online, but most of my active time happened before that. I have some personal statistics, but my own archive is incomplete.
Ralf developed the club's new player path comprehensively.
Ralf is a great coach and the trainings are the highlight of every week!
Ralf's ideas are generally the same as our previous coaches tried teaching us, but his implementation is much better.
Ralf is a gentleman.
The basis for our defensive behaviour that Ralf laid for us is now bearing fruit.
Thanks to Ralf, my view of football has become clearer and simpler, which has made my playing and training easier.
One of the most talented coaches I've ever had.
Ralf is one of the greatest football minds of our time.
