How ex-Kidderminster striker has Mainz chasing Champions League

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When Bo Henriksen joined Mainz last year, they were nine points from safety with 13 games of the Bundesliga season remaining. Not only did he keep them up but now he has them chasing Champions League football in his first full season in charge.

It is an extraordinary story but then Henriksen is an extraordinary man. The 50-year-old Dane, once a striker in English football’s lower leagues with Kidderminster Harriers and Bristol Rovers, has been called crazy by one of his best players and a genius by his boss.

What is undeniable is that he is doing something special at Mainz. This club is famed for being coached by Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel but neither finished in the top four. Now, a team languishing last season are just two points off it with four games to play.

How has Henriksen done it?

“By taking away the fear,” he tells Sky Sports. “I had to take that away immediately and create a culture where people dared to be themselves, dared to make mistakes.

“And it was so bad at that point, they would listen to anyone, even a long-haired Dane.”

Perhaps. But Henriksen backed up his words with actions. In his second game in charge, Mainz were holding unbeaten leaders Bayer Leverkusen midway through the second half when goalkeeper Robin Zentner fumbled a straightforward shot into the net.

“I have heard so many coaches talking about belief and trust and then one second later someone makes a mistake and they are on television saying they lost the game because this player did not move here or that player did not do that. And then, it is destroyed.”

Henriksen backed his goalkeeper. “I told him that he would be part of it next week. You can talk and talk but if you do not show your players that you believe in them, they will never believe in you.” Over one year on and Zentner has still not missed a game.

So many have improved. Jonathan Burkardt is a standout. He had been on a run of one goal in 21 games at one stage prior to Henriksen’s appointment. This season, only three men have scored more Bundesliga goals. The style of play has been transformed.

“When we came in they were just kicking it high and long,” says Henriksen. “We changed it around, wanted to play more in the half spaces, actually create chances. I think we have become one of the most intense teams in the Bundesliga, pressing high.”

He talks with pride of their tempo. “The intensity is unbelievable.” And when they fall short, as they did at Borussia Dortmund recently, it annoys him. “We were maybe 98 per cent there. That is not enough. I hate being average. I was an average player.”

Lessons from Kidderminster

For English audiences, one of the most curious aspects of Henriksen’s rise to becoming one of the most exciting coaches in the Bundesliga is that this supposedly average player also happens to be Kidderminster’s all-time top scorer in the Football League.

It was a brief stint for club and player in the early 2000s, but Henriksen made an impact in Worcestershire and the experience had an impact on him. “It is a fantastic place and it was really fun because it was my childhood hero Jan Molby who took me there.”

Henriksen already knew he wanted to coach and was keen to learn more about the game in what he calls the home of football. So, what did he discover? “A lot of drinking. Fights in training. Things I had never seen before in my life,” he replies, laughing.

“It was a special culture because it was the last chance for these players. If they did not make it there, they had to go into the factory. In Denmark, it was a little different. You would become a lawyer or something. In England, at that time at least, it felt different.

“I learned from it in many ways and not only about football. I learned about human beings, about how to be in a group, how to treat each other. It was all about respect. I get goosebumps when I talk about it because that was eye-opening for me at the time.”

He recalls one particular occasion when he dived in the box to earn a penalty. Harriers won the game but it was his own captain Sean Flynn who confronted him afterwards. “He was a fantastic person. He had me up against the cabin,” remembers Henriksen.

“He was saying, ‘What are you doing, man? I never want you to play on my team again if you are trying to cheat’. For me, that was miraculous. It was a fantastic feeling to hear that. I could feel it in him that he would rather lose. Of course, that was the old days…”

Creating a new story at Mainz

And yet, the hairstyle remains. “We cannot really change who we are.” And the lessons of those times in England endure. “Culture for me is everything. And I am proud of the culture that we have created.” It is still all about forging bonds, building relationships.

“If you do not like your boss, there is no chance you will do your best for him. Maybe you will do it out of fear for six months. After that, your body will not want it anymore. That is why I believe that if you do not create a good culture, success will not last for long.”

He should know because the journeyman player is no journeyman coach. “I had seven years at one club, six at another. I know what it takes.” That accounts for his early years in Denmark, building clubs. He went on to Midtjylland in 2021 and won the Danish Cup.

Interestingly, his next job, the one prior to rescuing Mainz, saw him turn things around at FC Zurich, who had been bottom of the Swiss Super League. “I have been the underdog for the last 20 years,” he insists. But this achievement with Mainz is another level.

Why? Because he did not just save them, he kicked on. Henriksen talks about the difference between avoiding and achieving. After the escape act, Mainz lost some of their best players, Sepp van den Berg moving to Brentford and Brajan Gruda to Brighton.

“A bit of fear came into the team again,” he admits. “They were thinking that we had to rebuild everything again. That was probably my toughest job here in Mainz, maybe even a bigger miracle than saving them from relegation. We had to create a new story.”

It was a shaky start but Mainz improved, winning six from seven over the winter, including a victory over Bayern Munich. “We got better and better.” They believed again. No wonder Mainz’s sporting director Christian Heidel calls him a motivational genius.

“I cannot help anyone if I do not have that relationship,” says Henriksen. “Life is about relationships.” Such as the one with midfielder Nadiem Amiri, who calls him “positively crazy” and whose fine form has earned him a recall by Germany after five years away.

“I think they think I am crazy because I dare to be myself. When I am dancing in the dressing room, I do not know why I am dancing, I am just dancing because I feel it. I want to make an environment where people can do what they feel. Light not heavy.

“I know that Nadim has never seen that in football before. He probably thinks I am not a normal coach but I think I am the most normal coach in the world because I am just being me. I am not good at being someone else. It is logical to me. Just be yourself.”

As Heidel has pointed out, Henriksen is pigeon-holed as just a motivator but there is clearly more to the man. “Of course, we have changed tactically.” But Henriksen, like Klopp before him, credits that to being curious and surrounding himself with experts.

“Today, we have so many assistants and analysts around us to help with the small details, the tactics. And we have been tactically fantastic, my staff have been extraordinarily good. But to turn things around it is, of course, about culture.”

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What motivates the motivator, then? “It is the small things. It is the people. When I see Jonny smiling when he gets called up for the national team or Amiri getting called up again, that is enough for me. That is where I get my energy from, what the heart pumps for.”

What comes next? That is the fascination. Well, Henriksen talks of a possible visit to Kidderminster. “I have to go back some day.” But before that the big question is whether they can finish the job and qualify for Europe, maybe even the Champions League itself.

“We have not won anything yet but we have had a fantastic season.” Complete the double over Bayern Munich this weekend and it could become something else entirely. “It would be very special for the whole region.” A region that has been transformed by Bo Henriksen.

This news was originally published on this post .

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