Bo Henriksen Interview: Mainza coach that will surpass Jurgen Kloppa and Thomas Tuchel Legend Kidderminster Harriers

When Bo Henriksen joined Mainz last year, they had nine points of safety, and there were 13 games of the Bundesliga season. Not only did he keep them in progress, they were now chased by the Champions League football in his first season.

It’s an extraordinary story, but then Henriksen is an extraordinary man. 50-year-old Dane, once a striker in lower English football leagues with Kidderminster Harriers and Bristol Rover, one of his best players and Genius called him crazy.

What is indisputable is that he does something special in Mainz. This club is known for trained by Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, but none ended up in four best. Now, the team that passes last season are just two points with four games.

How did Henriksen do that?

“Taking away fear,” he says Sky Sports. “I had to take it off immediately and create a culture in which people dared to be alone were dare to go wrong.

“And it was so bad at that moment, they would listen to anyone, even a long day.”

Perhaps. But Henrixen taught his words with actions. In his second game, Mainz held the undefeated leaders of Bayer Leverkusen in the middle of the second half when goalkeeper Robin Zentner scored a direct shot into the net.

“I heard so many coaches talking about beliefs and trust, and then one second later someone was wrong, and they were on television, saying they lost the game because this player did not move here or that player did not do so. And then it was destroyed.”

Henriksen supported his goalkeeper. “I told him he would be part of that next week. You can talk and talk, but if you don’t show your players to believe in them, they will never believe you in you.” For over one year, and Zentner has not missed the game.

It improved so much. Jonathan Burkardt is a separation. He was on the goal of one goal in 21 games in one stage before Henrysen’s appointment. This season only three men scored more goals in the Bundesliga. The style of the game is transformed.

“When we entered, they just hit him high and long,” says Henriksen. “We changed it, we wanted to play more in half of the space, actually to make a chance. I think we became one of the most intense teams in the Bundesliga, pressing high.”

She talks proudly of their pace. “The intensity is amazing.” And when they fail, as they did in Borussia Dortmund, it annoys him. “We may have been 98 percent there. That’s not enough. I hate to be average. I was an average player.”

Kidderminster lessons

For the English audience, one of the most interesting aspects of Henriksen’s rise to become one of the most exciting coaches in the Bundesliga is that this allegedly average player is also Kidderminster’s best scorer in the football league.

It was a brief representative for the club and the player in the early 2000s, but Henriksen influenced Worcestershire and the experience influenced him. “It’s a fantastic place and it was really fun because my childhood hero Jan Molby took me there.”

Henriksen already knew he wanted to train and wanted to find out more about the game in what he calls football. So what did he discover? “A lot of drinking. Fighting in training. Things I have never seen before in my life,” he replies, laughing.

“It was a special culture because it was the last opportunity for these players. If they did not get there, they had to enter the factory. It was a little different in Denmark. You would become a lawyer or something.

“I learned from that in many ways and not just about football. I learned about human beings, about how to be in the group, how to treat each other. It all related to respect. I get goosebumps when I talk about it because it was an opening of my eyes at the time.”

He remembers a special occasion when he dived in a box to earn a sentence. Harriers won the game, but after that his own captain Sean Flynn faced. “He was a fantastic person. He directed me to the cabin,” Henriksen remembers.

“He said,” What are you doing, man? I never want you to play more on my team if you try to cheat. It was wonderful for me. It was a fantastic feeling to hear that. I could feel it in it he would rather lose. Of course, those were old days … “

Creating a new story in Mainz

Yet the hairstyle remains. “We can’t really change who we are.” And the lessons of those times in England last. “Culture for me is everything. And I am proud of the culture we have created.” It is still a forgery of bonds, building relationships.

“If you do not like your boss, there is no way you will do your best for him. You may do it for six months. After that, your body will no longer want it. So I believe that if you do not create a good culture, success will not last long.”

You should know because a passenger player is not a traveler coach. “I was seven in one club, six on the other. I know what it takes.” That does his early year in Denmark, building clubs. He continued in Midtjylland in 2021 and won the Danish Cup.

Interestingly, the next job, the one before saving Mainz, saw him turn things in FC Zurich, which was the bottom of the Swiss super league. “I’ve been underdog for the last 20 years,” he insists. But this achievement with Mainz is the second level.

Why? Because he didn’t just save them, he hit them. Henriksen talks about the difference between avoidance and achievement. After the escape law, Mainz lost some of his best players, Sepp van Den Berg moved to Brentford and Brajan Gruda to Brighton.

“It got into the team again,” he admits. “They thought we had to renew everything again. It was probably my hardest job here in Mainz, perhaps even a bigger miracle than rescue from relegation. We had to create a new story.”

It was a poignant start, but Mainz improved, winning six out of seven over the winter, including victory over Bayern Munich. “We got better and better.” They believed again. No wonder sports director Mainza Christian Heidel calls him a motivational genius.

“I can’t help anyone if I don’t have that relationship,” Henriksen says. “Life is in a relationship.” Such as the one with the midfielder Nadiem Amiri, who calls him “positively crazy” and whose fine form Germany has received after five years.

“I think they think I’m crazy because I dare be me. When I dance to the locker room, I don’t know why I dance, just dancing because I feel it. I want to make an environment where people can do what they feel. The light is not heavy.

“I know I hope he has never seen this in football before. He probably thinks I’m not a normal coach, but I think I’m most often a coach in the world because I’m just me. I’m not good at being someone else. It’s logical for me. Just be alone.”

As Heidel pointed out, Henriksen is a pigeon only Motivator, but there is obviously more to a man. “Of course, we changed tactically.” But Henriksen, like Klopp before him, is attributing to being curious and surrounded by experts.

“Today we have so many assistants and analysts around us to help in small details, tactics. And we were tactically fantastic, my staff was extremely good. But that it would turn, of course, about culture.”

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Then what motivates the motivator? “These are small things. These are people. When I see Jonny smiling when they invite him to the national team or Amiri to re -refer, that’s enough for me. From there, I get energy from what my heart pumps.”

What follows? This is a fascination. Well, Henriksen talks about a possible visit to Kidderminster. “I have to come back one day.” But before that, the big question is whether I can finish the job and qualify for Europe, maybe even the Champions League itself.

“We haven’t won anything yet, but we had a fantastic season.” Complete the double over Bayern Munich this weekend and that could become something else completely. “It would be very special for the whole region.” The region that Bo Henriksen transformed.