As a player, he won the championship and cup with 1. FC Kaiserslautern. As club boss, he saved the Red Devils from relegation from the 2nd division and led them back to the Bundesliga. In the SWR sports podcast “Nur der FCK” Stefan Kuntz speaks in detail for the first time about his time in Kaiserslautern.
“You can see once again that football is more head than legs and what a win like this against Schalke means. The FCK performed very dominantly and very confidently,” says Stefan Kuntz in the SWR sports podcast “Nur der FCK”, looking at the team’s convincing away win FCK back at Berlin’s Hertha. For the first time in ten years, the Red Devils are in a cup semi-final. At the last appearance in the round of the last four, Kuntz was still chairman of the board in Kaiserslautern.
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FCK fans are once again experiencing a season of extremes. After a weak start in the league with two defeats, a winning streak followed that made the Lauterers the league leaders for at least one night. Followed by an absolute decline that saw the traditional club almost plummet to a relegation zone during the winter break.
Wild rumors about Grammozis are causing unrest at the FCK
The usual mechanisms of the football business then took effect. Dirk Schuster was fired as coach and succeeded by Dimitrios Grammozis. The Greek had not yet taken office when many people wanted to chase him off Betzenberg again. After defeats against Hertha, Braunschweig and St. Pauli, rumors spread that the team had turned against their coach. The FCK was forced to defend itself against the rumors with a public statement.
A right and important step, says Stefan Kuntz: “We once again experienced a situation that is typical for the FCK, that rumors and lies arose. I thought the statement from the club was very good. And if you as a coach within the club know that “If you have support, it’s even better, of course.” Of course, this is also a psychological trick; they are looking for the bad guy from outside who wants to harm the club. “That’s how you know as a team: If we, the ‘Inner Circle’, stick together, then we will really achieve something and show it to everyone.”
Kuntz: A new coach takes time
The approach seems to have been fruitful. The Red Devils with coach Grammozis celebrated a convincing 4-1 home win against Schalke 04, followed by a strong performance in the cup quarter-finals.
For ex-FCK player Kuntz, time is a crucial factor: “The coach had a little more time to work with the team, the integration of the new players has progressed further. Nothing is more valuable for team spirit than a win, especially in front of a sold-out house That was good against Schalke.” This meant that the team had less pressure and went to Berlin knowing that they had nothing to lose there.
According to coach Stefan Kuntz, a new coach simply needs a certain amount of time to implement his philosophy with his team. As a new coach, you first try out both smaller and larger ideas, but only over time you realize whether the team can actually implement them.
After the cup victory a year later, the German championship – Stefan Kuntz presented the bowl in 1991.
Imago/ Sven Simon
Stefan Kuntz: In the FCK environment, lies are deliberately spread
Kuntz explains the fact that there are always external disturbances at FCK with the great interest in the traditional club and the emotionality that comes with it. “There are always people who are not the FCK fans they pretend to be. They want to present themselves, they want to be important and then they simply become liars or spreaders of conspiracy theories.”
Kuntz would like to see such people held accountable more often. He also wants the fan scene to clean itself up by not jumping on all the rumors.
Stefan Kuntz is self-critical about his time at FCK
Stefan Kuntz was the strong man on the “Betze” from 2008 to 2016. First he saved the club from falling into the third division, largely thanks to the euphoria that was sparked by his passionate campaign. As a result, the FCK regularly played for promotion to the Bundesliga and made it back into the first division from 2010 to 2012.
After being relegated to the 2nd league again, the Red Devils initially missed promotion in a dramatic way in the relegation game against Hoffenheim. Two fourth places followed before things went much worse in terms of sport and Kuntz and his “heart club” parted ways again.
Stefan Kuntz during his visit to the SWR Studio Kaiserslautern with the two editors Stefan Kersthold (left) and Sebastian Zobel (right). SWR
Stefan Kuntz also had to endure a lot of criticism at the end of his term in Kaiserslautern. He has been accused of many things, from nepotism in player signings to an overly authoritarian management style. “It’s not perfect when you’re extremely emotionally attached to a club like that,” says Kuntz, looking back on this phase of his life. “The FCK is deeply and firmly anchored in my heart. Of course you take one or two things much more personally.”
Stefan Kuntz about FCK time: “It was too harsh and emotional”
Kuntz is also self-critical and says that he would react differently in some situations today: “If someone had a different opinion, or if you perhaps even had the facts on your side, I would still have had to have such discussions in a much more conciliatory and affable manner “To let one or the other save face. Sometimes I was far too harsh, sometimes too offended and far too emotional. I think I could have taken out a lot of the harshness.”
After his time as club boss in Kaiserslautern, Kuntz returned to the sidelines as a coach and celebrated great success with the U21 national team. He won the European Championship twice with the young footballers before he became coach of the Turkish national team: “I always need something that excites me, that challenges me, where I immediately feel a tingling sensation when I first call. At that point I wanted to know: Can “I’m a senior national coach? I wanted to see what it’s like as a foreigner to be a national coach in a very emotional country.”
Stefan Kuntz at his last coaching stint as Turkish national coach.
Imago/ Propaganda Photo
Stefan Kuntz would have liked to be a coach at the 2024 European Championship
Kuntz looks back on his time in Turkey with satisfaction. He endured the pressure for two years, led the team to where everyone wanted it to be and gave young players a chance. However, the end hurt when the team qualified for the 2024 European Championship in Germany in the two games after his tenure. “Of course I would have liked to have been on the sidelines as Turkish national coach in Germany.”
And of course the 96 European champion Kuntz would have been happy if he had been chosen as Hansi Flick’s successor as national coach. However, he was also able to understand the decision for Julian Nagelsmann.
Stefan Kuntz: The addiction to scoring goals
During his active career, Kuntz was a successful striker, scoring 179 goals in 449 Bundesliga games. He was even top scorer in the Bundesliga twice, once at FCK and once at VfL Bochum. As a national player, he became European champion in England in 1996. Unprecedented to date: Kuntz remained unbeaten in 25 international matches.
After his playing career, he quickly took the step into coaching. First in his hometown of Saarland at the traditional club Borussia Neunkirchen. He then moved on to Karlsruher SC and Waldhof Mannheim, before he had to take a forced break after a short stint at LR Ahlen.
Stefan Kuntz: Falling on your face and getting up again
“That one year of being unemployed was a really bad year, but it helped me. I then completely fell out of this illusionary world of football, not just on my butt, I didn’t land on my feet, but on my face. At some point I “I suggested to my wife how she could load the dishwasher better. Then she said, ‘Stefan, you have to find a replacement for the goals you’ve scored,'” Kuntz reports.
Football | Podcast Only the FCK
Only the FCK – the SWR Sport Podcast about 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Every two weeks we talk about everything about the FCK – with players and fans.
“That used to be my driving force. I wanted to score a goal, I wanted people to cheer for me. Nobody can buy that. Nobody can give money and the west curve is cheering for him,” said Kuntz about the exhilarating feeling Football could give him initially as a player and later as a coach and official.
The time without work was ultimately the impetus for distance learning in football management. During his subsequent engagement in Koblenz, he led the TUS to promotion together with coach Milan Sasic. His successful work at the Deutsches Eck paved his way to Bundesliga club Bochum. In 2008 he followed the call from Kaiserslautern and took over the helm at FCK.
Stefan Kuntz wants to work as a national coach again
Incidentally, Stefan Kuntz is far from thinking about quitting: “I still have far too much energy left in me. Of course there are things that I would rule out because I’ve already had them. I always need a challenge with a task like this I get to know something new and can develop myself further.”
What would appeal to him most is the position of national coach in a country where he sees a challenge for himself. A club job at an interesting club abroad would also be conceivable. Unlike a return to FCK: “Coming back doesn’t often go well, as you can often see with players.” However, Kuntz doesn’t rule out the possibility that he would help the club he loves in times of need: “I think if FCK were doing really, really badly, at the very end I could be overcome with love for the club.”