Frank Schmidt: 5 things on Heidenheim's legendary head coach
Long-time servant, legend, miracle worker: Frank Schmidt enjoys cult status at Heidenheim, the club he's steered from the fifth tier of German football to the Bundesliga and UEFA competition. bundesliga.com presents five things on the understatedly brilliant German tactician...
1) Heidenheim4Life
Not only was Schmidt born in Heidenheim, he even finished his modest playing career as captain of his hometown club, helping them climb into the Oberliga in the first of his four seasons as skipper. A few months after hanging up his boots, in September 2007, former boss Dieter Märkle was relieved of his duties and Schmidt was named interim head coach - initally as a two-week stopgap. Over 16 years later, the Heidenheim supremo is the longest-serving manager in German professional football history, having officially surpassed Volker Finke on the ladder on 17 September 2023 – exactly 16 years to the day since he took charge.
Watch: Heidenheim flying under Schmidt
2) A true mastermind
Schmidt's first campaign in charge ended in promotion to the fourth tier. In no time at all, he took Heidenheim into the fourth tier, the 2008/09 Regionalliga Süd title and 3. Liga, before a third promotion in 2014 to Bundesliga 2. Over the next decade, he established the Baden-Württemberg outfit in the second division and came agonisingly close to a historic promotion in 2019/20, when only away goals denied them victory in the play-off against Werder Bremen. History was finally made in dramatic late fashion on the final day of 2022/23 as Heidenheim leapt from third to first in added time to secure promotion to the Bundesliga and top-flight football for the first time ever.
Watch: "We are going up!" - Schmidt leads FCH to Bundesliga
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3) A Bayern fan
A Bayern Munich fan is his youth, Schmidt played against the record champions in the colours of TSV Vestenbergsgreuth in the 1994/95 DFB Cup. Facing a team coached by Giovanni Trapattoni, and featuring the likes of Oliver Kahn, Didi Hamann and Lothar Matthäus, the German minnows - then of the Bavarian fifth tier - caused one of the biggest cupsets on record by beating Bayern 1-0. The club later erected a stone monument to commerate the scalp, with the inscription: 'DFB Cup 14.8.1994, TSV Vestenbergsgreuth 1-0 Bayern'. Schmidt went close to repeating the trick as Heidenheim coach in 2018/19, his team eventually losing out 5-4 in a thrilling quarter-final cup tie at the Allianz Arena. He would not be denied in the club's first home game as a Bundesliga club against Bayern, though, the wily strategist overseeing a superb 3-2 win from 2-0 down.
Watch: Heidenheim outsmart and outscore Bayern
4) Big screen debut
In 2013, Schmidt was one of three main protagonists in Aljoscha Pause's acclaimed documentary 'Trainer!' – exploring the challenges faced by young coaches in Germany. Jürgen Klopp was one of several more established managers who contributed to the film – and as Heidenheim have gained prominence in recent years, Schmidt has drawn comparisons with the former Dortmund and Liverpool coach. Both men began coaching where they ended their playing careers (Mainz, in Klopp's case), both have a reputation for being close to their players, and both are master tacticians. Schmidt, for one, has Heidenheim top of the Bundesliga and playing UEFA Conference League football at the start of only their second campaign in Germany's top tier.
5) Finance beckoned
Had his time at Heidenheim not developed into one of Germany’s greatest sporting fairytales, Schmidt might have chosen a very different career path after hanging up his boots. The former defender is a trained banker.
Married to a nurse and with two daughters in the same profession, the tactician is more than content with the familiar in terms of his long-term relationship with Heidenheim. “My whole life is about continuity. I'm also still with my first girlfriend. It just fits,” Schmidt once said in an interview with Bild. "It's actually unbelievable. It doesn't seem that long to me [at Heidenheim], but it’s crazy, especially when you look at the average half-life of coaches in professional football. But you also have to be honest and say that Heidenheim is not Hamburg or Munich."
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