Freiburg trainer Christian Streich: The football world is becoming more and more volatile. Also in Germany, formerly a bastion of rationality, coaches are becoming more and more disposable. Christian Streich is one of the exceptions to the rule, and has now spoken out critically about developments in society in general and football in particular.
Coach of Freiburg fiercely criticises volatility and neo-capitalism
Trainers in the Bundesliga last an average of a year, Streich, on the other hand, has been in office for almost thirteen years and led his SC Freiburg to the greatest moments in club history during that time. He tells what he sees around him. “The pressure is enormous. Everything is individualised. There are no more connecting cables in many parts of life. It is extremely difficult, the way things have developed. An incredible number of people have psychological problems because they are completely overburdened,” says Streich.
He continued, “They don’t feel heat anymore. There are no more frames of reference, no connections. That is a social problem, it is frightening. Football has always been an expression of society as a whole. The technical directors are also under enormous pressure, it is a madhouse. Because those connections are missing. The club loses two or three times and people go crazy and spread things on social media. Horrible.”
Streich, successful last week by knocking Bayern Munich away from the DFB-Pokal, also knows why the problems he sees elsewhere are not occurring at his club in south-west Germany. Soon the coach again draws a parallel with society.
“In Freiburg we have continuity because we have connections. Where that is not the case, it goes downhill. Large companies barely pay taxes, and if they have to, they move countries and blacken those countries. That is neo-capitalism. We live in neo-capitalism, and neo-capitalism is destructive,” he concludes.
Sacked/departed Bundesliga managers in the 2022-23 season
The magnitude of the topic that Freiburg trainer Christian Streich points out can be visibly seen through the below tabulation.
| Manager | Club | Sack date |
| Domenico Tedesco | RB Leipzig | September 7 |
| Thomas Reis | Bochum | September 12 |
| Gerardo Seoane | Bayer Leverkusen | October 5 |
| Pellegrino Matarazzo | Stuttgart | October 10 |
| Frank Kramer | Schalke | October 19 |
| Julian Nagelsmann | Bayern Munich | March 24 |
