Danny Röhl shuffled off the field, said gratitude to the remaining 302 supporters, and made his way down the tunnel.
FC Eilenburg defeated Bornaer SV 2-0 on November 21, 2009, to move up to fifth place in the Landesliga Sachsen, which had recently been restructured as the sixth tier of German football a year earlier. The home team had won comfortably but not spectacularly. They were, in fact, unspectacular surroundings.
Röhl, a gangly and intelligent 20-year-old enrolled to study sports science at the nearby University of Leipzig, had come off the bench to replace forward Markus von Durschefsky in the 82nd minute, instructed to help his side close out the match and secure their third win on the spin. Taking his seat in the changing room, he removed his shin pads and boots with a smile and a feeling of satisfaction as teammates celebrated around him.
What he didn’t know was that he was doing so for the final time as a footballer. A few days later Danny Röhl seriously injured his ACL in a training incident and having struggled with injuries throughout his short playing career in Germany’s lower leagues, he made the decision to call time on his first love. In truth, he’d known it had been coming for some time.
This is the story of Danny Röhl, who went from being a 20-year-old football retiree to being one of the world’s best young coaches.
A proud historic city sitting on a hillside.
It’s tough to get a full impression of a city from 620 miles away without traveling there. But, without delving too far into the realms of clumsy amateur psychology, spending an hour or two looking up information about the city in which Röhl was born and raised creates an air of fascination as to how it may have shaped the Wednesday boss’s personality and approach to things. What’s also noticeable are the superficial similarities between Zwickau and the city where he now works.
Röhl’s home town is an East German city rich in culture and history, set on a hill, surrounded by forest on the south-western region of Saxony. It’s most famous son is Robert Schumann, the troubled, seminal Romantic-era composer and virtuoso pianist who along with his own achievements acted as a mentor to Johannes Brahms. A list of other notable Zwickau folk include famous physicians, engineers, politicians, painters and academics. It seems to be a city deep in thought.
It’s history suggests a city deep in hard working, blue collar values, too. A vibrant coal mining community industrialised the region in the 19th century and continued until 1978. In 1989 uranium mining ended in the region and in 1992 Zwickau’s last coke oven plant was closed. Automobile production remains a major local industry with Audi AG and Volkswagen holding plants there to this day.
Along with post-war reunification in Germany and some changes to regional boundaries, the reduction of local work opportunity contributed to the population of Zwickau dropping from a high of 138,844 in 1950 to just 86,592 at most recent count. In just 11 years between 1986 and 2021 nearly 30,000 people moved elsewhere. It’s beautiful, but it’s had its hardships. Danny Röhl was born in 1989, six months before the fall of the Berlin Wall and at a fascinating time for his country.
A proud city, hills, culture, working class values, the late-1900s demise of major local industry? Perhaps there’s a reason Röhl maintains he has felt at home since arriving in Sheffield.
One source who knew Röhl towards the back end of his playing years suggests his work ethic and analytical approach that is typical of his home town, laughing at the lazy English stereotype of ‘German efficiency’ but agreeing it goes some way to describing his style. He described a ‘smart boy’ who despite struggles with injuries rarely frustrated his clubs due to his hard-working personality. He said he was ‘always going to achieve things’.
Few, according to the insider, could have predicted how much success he’d have in his profession by the age of 34.
“I missed the moments to enjoy football..”
Nearly 15 years after his final appearance as a footballer, Röhl speaks humbly about his ability as a player, which contrasts with the confident way he speaks about coaching. There’s a definite logic to that, of course; he confesses that his successes as a player were very small, especially in comparison to a swift ascent through the coaching world that has brought him
I would not get too hung up about formations with Danny Rohl. We played many different shapes yesterday in different phases.
In possession it was noticeably a 433 at stages, here is a good example.
It then shifted again in the final third pressure to a 3 at the back and… pic.twitter.com/I4PZZi179A
— TW Football (@TWFootball1867) October 30, 2023
Video study of an under-16 team’s rise to the Hillsborough hot seat thanks to World Cup wins with Germany and Champions League victories with Bayern Munich.
His first love has always been football, and he confesses that, while he has a healthy professional interest in other sports like as handball and American football, no other game has come close to matching his commitment. He began his career as a part-time professional with FSV Zwickau and FC Sachsen Leipzig II before finishing with a brief seven-game stay at FC Eilenburg. It was a painfully brief playing career marred by injuries; between the ages of 16 and 20, he had nine surgery for various reasons.
Röhl recalls with grief that he was still a youngster when he realized his physique would not allow him to pursue a career as a footballer. He had the insight to enroll at the University of Leipzig, where his already strong desire for study, analysis, and critical thinking was heightened. Because of the modesty of his surroundings at smaller clubs, sports scientists and athletic coaches were scarce, so Röhl decided to learn how to effectively recover from injuries on a regular basis. He investigated the finest ways to improve his physique and developed his own recuperation routines. For the most part, he was a teenager.
FC Eilenburg was an amateur club comprised primarily of students and players recruited through their own youth system. Röhl was one of the student players that would coach the young athletes. The fire was lit.
“I started very early,” he remarked in an interview with The Star this month. “Looking back at the facilities and surroundings in my academy teams, I never expected to have an athletic coach. When I was injured, I began reading books and using the internet to learn how to strengthen myself. I found that I enjoyed it and that I could read the game well.
“I was thinking about how I could stop the other team and noticed some signs that I may become a coach. I began training gradually, and it soon became evident that after school, I wanted to be a coach in addition to playing football. I was unable to train due to a knee injury, so I accepted my first assistant coach position at the academy. I enjoyed being on the pitch and working with the players, and then it was on to the next level.”
Röhl’s love for his players to be able to play in a number of positions is clear, his explanation being that it allows him and his coaching staff to more easily switch and tweak systems in-game. But there is perhaps a throwback to how he went about playing football, albeit at a far lower level than those he has coached in.
But what is most revealing is an admission that while he looks back on his playing days with fondness, he was too intense, too eager to impress to fully enjoy his time as a player. He feels it held him back. As a coach, though his instructions are famously meticulous in detail and preparation, he wants to see more freedom and enjoyment from his players than he was able to show.
“I was fast and I could run a lot,” he said. “I played a lot of positions; right-winger, right full-back, number six, centre-back. I was OK but I was never at the highest level.
“To be honest as a player I missed the moments to enjoy football. I had too many things in my mind and I was desperate to bring good things to the pitch. This is a balance I am trying to give my players, to give them the freedom to enjoy football. Of course they know what I demand, but it makes no sense to be too straight in one direction, that makes no sense in football.”
As a player, Danny Röhl and spent more time in rehabilitation from injuries than that spent fit. It leaves some wondering where the playing career of a tall, physically athletic and versatile young player could have led. Despite that source of ponder, Röhl looks back at his years as a player and transition into management as full of luck.
“Sometimes there is luck involved..”
In May 2007, the nature of Red Bull’s intention to invest in German football was made public after details of their approach to buy a controlling stake in Fortuna Düsseldorf was reported in the press. They were looking to expand what was then a four-team stable of teams in their most ambitious move yet; a move into one of the foremost football league systems in Europe.
It was an intention bathed in controversy. St Pauli and 1860 Munich were among the other clubs sounded-out as Red Bull sought to make their mark in a football pyramid built on ideals of fan ownership. Many fans of the more traditional clubs reviled at the thought of an energy drinks company forging their way through the traditions of the German football pyramid. There were protests, some violent. Red Bull found themselves in a difficult position.
To form a new club altogether they would be forced to start at the very bottom of the pyramid, a reality that would set their plans back several years and so a club would have to be sought to take over the playing rights from. That was, partly on the recommendation of football legend Franz Beckenbauer, until they looked to Saxony.
Though a proud football region in the days of East and West separation, Saxony had not had a Bundesliga team since 1994 and no team in the professional leagues at all since 1998. Group that with the well-developed infrastructure in the form of an international airport, motorway connections and, most importantly, a large and underutilised football stadium only recently re-developed for the 2006 World Cup and it all made sense.
Their initial club of choice? FC Eilenburg. Discussions were had, contracts drawn up, but the move to take over the club Röhl would ironically join for his final playing stint a few months later hung on their survival as a fifth tier side. They were relegated and from the playing rights of nearby SSV Markranstädt, RB Leipzig was born.
The entry of RB Leipzig into Saxony delivered a shot in the arm to the region and fresh opportunities to those who wanted them, the timing impeccable for a figure of Röhl’s ambition. Despite the lasting controversy of how they went about things in a German football culture built on tradition and fan-led governance, Red Bull brought a progressive image of how football could be played and encouraged ‘blue sky thinking’. It embraced analytics and favoured youth.
Had Red Bull received less push-back from Düsseldorf, St Pauli or 1860 and not ended up as RB Leipzig (officially named RasenBallsport Leipzig due to rules on sponsorship naming rights) then life after playing could have been very different for Danny Röhl. But the sliding doors pushed in his direction and within a year of his retirement from playing, he was working as an analyst and co-trainer in the RB Leipzig youth ranks. “My big goal was always to work in the football business,” he told me. “The room is small, and there aren’t many opportunities. It is all about being in the right location, capitalizing on momentum, and making the most of any opportunities that come your way. It was always my ambition to be a coach. My small objective was to become a coach in the academy, and now it’s on to the next phase. Now I’m in a terrific football environment at a large club, facing a significant task. It is a fantastic competition, and we have significant obstacles every week.
“Sometimes luck is involved. Red Bull came to Leipzig, which meant they required fresh trainers, therefore I was immediately available.”
The rest is already well-known history. After four years in the ‘RasenBallsport’ youth ranks, Röhl was promoted to a senior staff under Ralph Hasenhüttl, who led the team to a second-place finish and qualification for the Champions League in their first Bundesliga season. He followed Hasenhüttl.
In his 20s, he worked as an assistant manager for Southampton and a Premier League club. Then came Hansi Flick, who scored trebles for Bayern Munich, Germany, and now Sheffield Wednesday.
Danny Röhl has had a fascinating journey. Championship survival from the depths of despair before walking through the door at Hillsborough in October would be the most recent episode in an increasingly amazing saga.
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