In an interview: Zsolt Low | News | Official site

Now 43, Lowe was coming to the end of his playing days at Mainz just as Tuchel was taking his first steps in management. Unlike Arnaud Michels and Benny Weber, the other two coaches who followed Tuchel from PSG to Stamford Bridge, Jolt and Tuchel’s coaching alliance would not begin at Mainz, though not for want of trying.

Instead, Low began his highly successful coaching career with the Red Bull Group at Salzburg and then Leipzig, under his former Hoffenheim boss, Ralf Rangnick.

‘Jogi’ would eventually link up with Tuchel again when he took over at PSG, and he has been at his side ever since. Here he reveals his journey from player to coach, his football philosophy and the toughest test of his life so far…

Jogi, tell us about the beginning of your football journey in communist Hungary…

“At that time, in my country, being an athlete was a very high-ranking position. Football was very popular. We were a normal family in Hungary living in an apartment on the 10th floor. There wasn’t much to do besides sports. We played football all day.

“I was playing school football and one of the biggest clubs in Hungary, Ujpest, came to this tournament looking for talent. In 1988, when I was nine years old, I was chosen. I was the happiest and proudest child in the whole world.

“My parents and my brother protected me. Football was in my family and in my country. I spent 14 years in Ujpest, went through the whole youth system and got into the first team in 96/97. I played my first game in 1998.

Low, a left-back, joined Energie Cottbus in the Bundesliga in 2002 and made his debut for the Hungarian national team shortly afterwards. After a short and unsuccessful spell at Hansa Rostock, he signed for Hoffenheim in 2006. Lowe picked up the story.

“They were starting a new project in the Third Division with a vision of going to the First Division. It was a tough decision for me. Shall I go there? Ralf Rangnick was the one in charge, bringing in some of the best people in German football as sports psychologists, assistant coaches, manager and he built the whole club. New training centre, new facilities, new stadium, new players.

“He had two conversations with me and was absolutely clear with his vision. I got a lot of criticism for being relegated. I was in the national team of Hungary. No one understood, but it was my decision. Luckily we got promoted to the Second Division after the first year and then went straight to the First Division. People admitted that maybe it was the right decision!’

Now in the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim were leading Bayern Munich during the winter break, but Lowe was finding playing time difficult. He jumped a league to sign for Mainz in January 2009 and they were quickly promoted and appointed a new boss, a 35-year-old named Thomas Tuchel…

“I spent two years with Thomas. I finished my career in 2011. Thomas asked me to stay with him as half player, half coach. Let’s still train with the team, but make the connection between the players and the coaching staff. I was absolutely happy with that, but we couldn’t come to an agreement with the club. This role did not exist at the time.

“When I was a player, it wasn’t the greatest friendship, we had conflicts too! Sometimes I felt like I should play, sometimes he felt like I shouldn’t play, it wasn’t like everything was rosy and super nice!

“We went our separate ways, but we respected each other. I knew he was a very great coach and a nice person and could be important in my life. He also knew that I could be important to him one day.

“As a player, I’ve always been interested in what I have to do and why I have to do it. I wanted to look all the time behind the scenes and understand the coaches: why they handled something the way they did, what they really wanted. I was interested simply as a football player, not because I wanted to be a coach at the time.

“I came back to Hungary with a heavy heart because I really wanted to work with Tomas and Tomas wanted to work with me so we could start our careers together.”

When did you get the nickname Jogi?

“When I first moved to Germany, the German players asked me what they could call me. I said Yellow [roughly Gerholt with a soft g]. It was very difficult for them! They tried but could never get it right! Then they saw that my name is Low, very similar to the coach of the national team. From that moment I started with the nickname Jogi and it went through my whole life. I’m proud of it, Yogi Löw is a great German coach.

After nine months at home in Hungary spending time with family and friends, Lowe received another call from the “pushy” Rangnik, urging him to join him as he tackled a new project with Red Bull…

“I didn’t have a coaching license. I didn’t know what I wanted to do – sporting director, technical director, coach – but he said just come to me, work with me and we’ll find out where your talent is and what you can do.

Just like when I joined Hoffenheim, he was very nice but aggressive in a good way. Very clear, very direct, very impressive. Two days later I was sitting in Salzburg!’

It was clear that Lowe’s future was in coaching and between 2012 and 2018 he helped various Red Bull teams make big strides forward. First, he guided the RB Salzburg team to promotion and helped them stabilize and thrive in the second tier. Rangnik moved him to the first team of RB Salzburg as an assistant. They won the league and the cup and broke records in the Champions League.

Next stop in the summer of 2015 was Leipzig, working directly with Rangnik. They were immediately promoted and then made waves in the Bundesliga, with Lowe now working alongside Ralf Hasenhütl. In 2018 came the chance to work with Tuchel again…

“After six years with Red Bull, I felt like I had learned everything, I had given everything and lived years of high intensity with all the pressure to constantly be one step better, and yet during those six years the contact with Thomas never stopped. We always tried to find a way to come together. We talked a lot.

“He saw that I was on my own path and could be very successful. In those six years, I got a B license, an A license, and a Pro license. I was doing it on the side and it was very difficult.

“He went to Dortmund, but it wasn’t the right time, so we waited. After having a year off, Thomas went to Paris Saint-Germain. I had a contract with Red Bull and they offered me other options to try to keep me. They fought a lot, but finally they let me go. Paris paid the highest amount for an assistant coach – 1.5 million euros.

“I had a feeling deep down that I wanted to learn and see something new. Thomas’ ideas about football and my ideas about football mixing can be something unique.

And what were your respective notions of football?

“The whole Red Bull project was based on very intense football without the ball. It was about very high, aggressive pressing and counter-pressing, with high ball returns, with high won balls and fast attacks. It was a bit like Liverpool now. Ralf Rangnick and Klopp had similar visions.

“Thomas was more of the coach who likes to play with the ball, with a lot of passing, with building and controlling the ball. It was more Pep Guardiola football and the other was more Jurgen Klopp football.

“The idea was to bring those two together and make it unique.”

When you reconnected with Tuchel in 2018, was he the same Tuchel you last worked with seven years earlier?

“He had changed a bit, he had become a very experienced coach, but in his way of thinking about football and off the pitch, nothing had changed. It was the same smile, the same kind person to me from the first moment. We felt the same connection.

“It was certainly not easy in the first months to understand each other. Not only was Thomas very experienced in his own ideas. I also had six years with my own ideas. It wasn’t easy getting these two together.

“I had a lot of responsibility during the six years with Red Bull. I was little more than an assistant coach, I had to take care of the transfer period, the players, the matches, much more than coaching.

“I had to find my role in the new team. Arno was there, Benny was also there and I had to find my place in the whole structure without disturbing them but still adding something and still having a clear idea of ​​what I wanted and how I could help.

“It took time.” We certainly had a big battle about how we wanted to play and how to create a game plan together, but we could learn a lot from each other.

“We had an important moment in Paris together, it was a great experience for Thomas and his senior team, as well as for me. It was another level of football – working with such big stars is another skill. We learned a lot and became better coaches for it.

Chelsea called in January last year…

“We were very happy to be here. We are in the right place. It is a big club, a well organized club and we work with very nice and competent people. In football, you could never arrive in January and win the Champions League final in May if the whole club didn’t have a good structure and didn’t give us good support.

“From a personal point of view it was the hardest period of my life and I think I can speak for the other guys as well. I left my wife in Paris with three children, the youngest only six months old, without support. It was very hard. Thomas and the staff gave me support and energy. During those three months, if someone fell, we tried to push them again and help them. We grew up so close together. We lived together in a hotel and spent all our time together.

“We have never given up. We worked so hard. And I believe you will get it back. We ended up in the top 4 and won the Champions League. The hardest time of my life gave me the best time of my life.

That win in the Champions League won you a lot of attention in your home country, didn’t it?

“As a player I was one of the 30 best players in Hungary. I played almost 200 games in the German first and second division and that was good, good for a Hungarian, but as a coach I can go beyond that. I have several titles in Austria, Germany, France and now here at Chelsea.

“I’m trying to give something back to my country. I am talking to the Hungarian Football Federation. I try to support them with ideas and help them in which way the structure of Hungarian football should go and help to develop different areas: coaches, video analysts, the psychological side, fitness coaches, physiotherapists. It’s about who we need to teach and what we need to teach them to make Hungarian football better. I have been working very closely with them for five or six years to pass on the knowledge and information that I have learned.

And what about your role as Tuchel’s assistant now? What does this mean?

“I’m absolutely enjoying my role. I’m glad I don’t need the three steps with the players. I can be very close to them. I can talk about football for sure, but also about personal problems, I can try to help them in any way. It’s still very important for me to have my role on the practice squad, on the coaching staff team. It’s important to be part of every decision – be it a match plan, a transfer window – and that’s what I find here. Thomas is absolutely open to all our ideas and listens to me.

“That’s why I don’t mind not being the main guy. In this one step, you gain more responsibility and more stress – and yes, well, more money! As a manager, you are always busy, talking to everyone and thinking of solutions. When I finish my work here, I can more or less be at home.

“After 34 years in football – I started in 1988 – I feel I have the right balance in my life. I am sitting on the train and it is moving at 200 kilometers per hour in the right direction through all the stations. Why should I pull on the emergency brake now and say “okay, I’m going out and trying to be a manager I can be proud of”? There’s no point. Maybe one day it will come naturally to my life, but right now I don’t want to force it. I’m on the right train!’