DANIEL FARKE
Chris Dunlavy profiles the new Norwich City manager
THE baffled looks of Norwich supporters when Daniel Farke pitched up at Carrow Road in May are entirely understandable. Until April, the 40-yearold didn’t even merit a Wikipedia entry in his native Germany!
“Oh, I do not care about that,” he laughed when quizzed about this anomaly last December. “I am a stranger anyway to all this self-adulation and promotion on social media. I hate saying anything about myself publicly. I prefer the quiet path.”
Quiet, calm, methodical. Farke may have trodden the same path as David Wagner, the man he succeeded as Dortmund’s Under-23 manager.
He may even have been hired to emulate his achievements. But the former striker’s approach to coaching is very different from the ‘rock n roll’ football of his predecessor.
Just as Thomas Tuchel led Dortmund’s first-team away from the energy-sapping genpress of Jurgen Klopp, so Farke transformed their youth ranks.
Both are proponents of Juego de Posición, the possession-centric style pioneered by Pep Guardiola. Both prefer tactical flexibility to strict doctrine.
Massih Wassey, who joined Dortmund II from Wiedenbruck in 2016, remembers his first meeting with Farke.
“One of the first questions I asked during the negotiations was ‘Where do you want me to play?’,” said the 29-year-old. “Mr Farke told me not to worry about that – he did not want to tell me a precise position because he wanted to play very variably.
“I quickly learned that it was the same for all of the players. Nobody was fixed, rigid. He had amazing ideas and just wanted to open your mind.”
Coveted
By the time Farke joined Norwich, he was one of Germany’s most coveted coaches. Three Bundesliga sides were rebuffed in 2016 alone. Yet his entry into management was an accident born entirely of financial expedience.
In 2009, Farke was working as sporting director at SV Lippstadt 08, the Westphalian amateurs to whom he had devoted the bulk of a successful lower-league playing career.
Financially crippled and close to going under, the club asked if Farke could combine his administrative duties with a role as head coach.
“It was an emergency situation,” explains Farke, who had already completed a diploma in sports management and taken his coaching badges whilst playing for Paderborn.
“I never wanted to be a coach. That was always clear to me. It was neither wish nor goal. I was more interested in the structure, the business.
“But the club had no money, players were leaving. We could no longer afford a head coach and a sporting director. That irritated me, since I realised I could take care of everything myself.
“I agreed to see out the season and then help to find a successor. However, we have won eight of the last ten games. I enjoyed working with the guys, the feedback was great. I stayed on.”
Farke worked 16-18 hour days to save his beloved club, all for the same salary he’d received as sporting director. First, a neglected youth system was overhauled and rebooted.
“Before, the second team was like the fifth wheel on a car,” said manager Javier Lombardia. “It got so bad we were training with six players and no goalkeeper. All that changed under Daniel Farke. It was like we hit the reset button.”
Two years later, a team containing several of its graduates won the Westfalenliga to reach the fifth tier – and highest amateur level – of German football.
“He was very professional in all areas, and demanded a very high level of competency,” said Lippstadt player Arda Nebi. “He wanted us to understand everything so we could work calmly and intensively to eliminate our mistakes.”
Already a legend as a player, his status was cemented in the dugout. “Daniel Farke brought so many qualities,” said chairman Dr Forusan Madjlessi. “Positive energy, human empathy and sound sports and business expertise. And all with a focus on sustainability.”
By 2015, Farke had been at Lippstadt for six years. Eager to expand his horizons, he resigned and travelled, talking to coaches, attending lectures.
The three-month sabbatical ended when David Wagner joined Huddersfield and Dortmund – the club Farke’s grandfather Franz represented for two seasons – came headhunting.
Philosophy
On arrival, he outlined his philosophy. “In the end it is not so much about the coach’s approach, but about how the team takes it,” he said. “I can have the best ideas and most creative approaches, but if the team does not believe in you then you are not the right coach for the team.”
Farke clearly was. Relegated from the third tier and in danger of dropping straight to the amateur ranks, Dortmund II finished fourth in Farke’s first season and second in 2017.
Players were won over by his down to earth demeanour, his habit of personally cooking meals and making coffee in the training centre, of placing cones and lugging water bottles.
Marco Hober, now at Sportfreunde Lotte, recalled how Farke “fought very hard” for him to be given a contract.
Other recall his decency in doling out rejection. “If you were dropped, he always told you honestly and kindly,” said goalkeeper Hendrik Bonmann. “This shows once again his strong personality and his character. You were frustrated, yes, but he made you want to work harder for him.”
All recall the inventive sessions and “family” feel he brought, a legacy of his long, earthy apprenticeship at Lippstadt.
At Dortmund, Farke called himself a ‘methodologist’. “I believe that content and teaching pays more in the long term than fighting for three points every week,” he said. Now, after rejecting the German giants – and the quiet road he loves – to take up a position in the East Anglian limelight, he must find a way to do both.