Volker Kersting, Mainz academy director, sighed. Thomas Tuchel, as of today England's new manager, had that look in his eyes. "He just said, 'Volker' and I knew what was coming," Kersting said in Rulebreaker, the Tuchel biography by Daniel Meuren and Tobias Schächter. "I'd been dreading it. He really wanted to go up the mountain and dig up that pin."
"The pin" was a grubby, small Mainz badge which during a summer pre-season training trip in Austria for Tuchel's then Mainz under-19s team had assumed almost sanctified status. Alongside four-hour training sessions - something of a shock for teenagers - Tuchel also displayed the gift for team bonding that he will require for the England job. One day in Austria, Tuchel insisted the whole squad hire mountain bikes and ride to the summit of the Simmering mountain, where they had lunch and admired the beautiful views before the head coach demonstrated his rhetorical powers, using the moment to tell the team that their goal was to win the league, something never achieved previously by Mainz's youngsters. Tuchel wanted a ceremony to mark the covenant between team and coach so made do with Kersting's Mainz badge, which was solemnly wrapped in a Snickers wrapper and buried at the mountain top. "When we reach our final, we will return to dig up our treasure!" Tuchel told them.
Fast forward 11 months to June 2009 when Mainz had qualified for the Bundesliga under-19 final, the title being decided in an end-of-season playoff. The semi-final had just been won when Tuchel turned to Kersting: he wanted to go back to Austria, climb the mountain and recover the pin. So Tuchel, Kersting and another club official drove the 300 miles south to Obsteig, Austria, climbed the mountain, dug up the pin and returned to Mainz, unbeknown to the players.
This story is from the January 01, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the January 01, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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