When Bo Henriksen joined Mainz last year, they were nine points from security with 13 games in the Bundesliga season back. Not only did he hold them up, but now he has them to chase the Champions League football in his first full season with responsibility.
It is an extraordinary story, but then Henriksen is an extraordinary man. The 50-year-old Dane, once an attacker 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 of his boss.
What is undeniable is that he does something special at Mainz. This club is famous for being coached by Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, but none of them ended up in the top four. Now a team that falls last season is just two points from it with four games to play.
How has Henriksen done it?
“By removing fear,” he says Sky Sports. “I had to remove it right away and create a culture where people dared to be themselves, dared to make mistakes.
“And it was so bad at the time they would listen to someone, even a long -haired Dane.”
Perhaps. But Henriksen backed up his words with actions. In his second -responsible game, Mainz kept unbeaten leaders Bayer Leverkusen midway through the second half as goalkeeper Robin Zentner fumbled a straight shot into the net.
“I have heard so many coaches talking about faith and confidence, and then a second later, someone makes a mistake and they are on TV and say they lost the game because this player did not move hit or the player did not do it. And then it is destroyed.”
Henriksen supported his goalkeeper. “I told him he would be part of it next week. You can talk and talk, but if you don’t show your players that you believe in them they’ll never believe you.” Over a year on, and Zentner still hasn’t missed a game.
So many are improved. Jonathan Burkardt is a prominent one. He had been on a race on a goal in 21 matches at a time before Henriken’s appointment. This season, only three men have scored several Bundesliga goals. The style of play has been transformed.
“When we got in, they just kicked it out loud and long,” says Henriksen. “We changed it around, wanted to play more in the half rooms, actually create chances. I think we’ve become one of the most intense teams in Bundesliga and pressed loudly.”
He speaks with pride of their pace. “The intensity is incredible.” And when they fall short, as they did on Borussia Dortmund recently, it annoys him. “We were maybe 98 percent there. That’s not enough. I hate being average. I was an average player.”
Lessons from Kidderminster
For the English audience, one of the most curious aspects of Henriken’s rise to become one of the most exciting coaches in Bundesliga is that this supposedly average player is also happening to Kidderminster’s top scorer in the football league.
It was a brief effort for the club and player in the early 2000s, but Henriksen had an influence on Worcestershire and the experience had an impact on him. “It’s a great place and it was really fun because it was my childhood hero Jan Molby who took me there.”
Henriksen already knew he wanted to train and was eager to learn more about the game in what he calls football’s home. So what did he discover? “A lot of drinks. Fighting in training. Things I had never seen before in my life,” he replies, laughing.
Henriksen in action during his days playing for Kidderminster Harriers
“It was a special culture because it was the last chance for these players. If they didn’t manage 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 least at the time, it felt different.
“I learned from it in many ways and not just about football. I learned about people, about how to be in a group, how to treat each other. It was about respect. I get goosebumps when I talk about it because it was eye -opening to me at the time.”
He is reminiscent of a particular apartment as he dived in the box to earn a punishment. Harriers won the game, but it was his own captain Sean Flynn who confronted him afterwards. “He was an amazing person. He had me up against the cabin,” Henriksen remembers.
“He said, ‘What are you doing, man? I never want you to play on my team again if you try to cheat’. For me it was miraculous. It was a great feeling to hear it. I could feel it in him that he would rather lose. Of course it was the old days …”
Mainz’s main coach Henriksen is seen as an expert man motivator
Creating a new story on Mainz
And yet the hairstyle remains. “We can’t really change who we are.” And the lessons in these times in England endure. “Culture for me is everything. And I am proud of the culture we have created.” It’s still about forging bonds, building relationships.
“If you don’t like your boss, there’s no chance you’ll do your best for him. Maybe you’ll do it for fear for six months. Then your body will not have it anymore. That’s why I think if you don’t create a good culture, success will not last long.”
He should know that because the Journeyman player is no Journeyman’s coach. “I had seven years at one club, six on another. I know what it takes.” It accounts for his early years in Denmark, building clubs. He went on to Central Jutland in 2021 and won the Danish cup.
Interestingly, his next job, before saving Mainz, saw him turning things around on FC Zurich, who had been the bottom of the Swiss Super League. “I’ve been the sub -dog for the past 20 years,” he insists. But this performance with Mainz is another level.
Why? Because he didn’t 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 moved to Brentford and Brajan Gruda to Brighton.
“A little fear came into the team again,” he admits. “They thought we had to rebuild everything again. It 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 and won six from seven during the winter, including a win over Bayern Munich. “We got better and better.” They believed again. No wonder Mainz’s sports director Christian Heidel calls him a motivational genius.
Mainz midfielder Nadiem Amiri in action for Germany in March
“I can’t help anyone if I don’t 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 of Germany after five years away.
“I think they think I’m crazy because I dare be myself. When I dance in the dressing room, I don’t know why I am dancing, I’m just dancing because I feel it. I want to make an environment where people can do what they feel. Light not heavy.
“I know Nadim has never seen it in football before. He probably thinks I’m not a normal coach, but I think I’m the most normal trainer in the world because I’m just me. I’m not good at being someone else. It’s logical to me. Just be yourself.”
As Heidel has pointed out, Henriksen is pigeons just A motivator, but there is clearly more for the man. “Of course we have changed tactically.” But Henriksen, who Klopp in front of him, credit it to be curious and surrounding himself with experts.
“Today we have so many assistants and analysts around us to help with the little details, the tactics. And we have been tactically amazing, my staff has been extraordinarily good. But turning things around it is of course about culture.”
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So what motivates the motivator? “Those are the little things. It’s the people. When I see Jonny smiling when he is called up to the national stroke or Amiri is called up again, that’s enough for me. That’s where I get my energy from what the heart pumps to.”
What’s coming then? That’s the fascination. Well, Henriksen is talking about a possible visit to Kidderminster. “I have to go back one day.” But before that is the big question whether they can quit the job and qualify for Europe, maybe even the Champions League itself.
“We haven’t won anything yet, but we’ve had an amazing season.” Complete double over Bayern Munich over the weekend and it can be something else completely. “It would be very special for the whole region.” A region transformed by Bo Henriksen.