Interview with Felix Magath

Reza Ghazinouri: ISP would like to congratulate you for getting the opportunity to be coaching such a high profile team such as Bayern. How do you want to work with all those football stars in your team? Don’t you think that will be pretty exhausting and difficult as a coach?

Felix Magath: Well, having individually skillfullplayers in one team does not make a great team. Each player needs to put his own interest on the side and stand behind the team regardless of his own interest.

Reza Ghazinouri: In Germany, many football fans and professionals speak that your training session are pretty hard and makes players too tired.

Felix Magath: I have no clue about that. I cannot acknowledge doing hard condition training.

Reza Ghazinouri: In those first couple of weeks, how did Vahid Hashemian established himself into the team.

Felix Magath: It is too early to talk about his establishment process, yet. So far, he has shown stabile performances. He is very diligence at every training sessions and games. Till yet, I had fun working with him.

Reza Ghazinouri: Have you followed the Asian Cup so far?

Felix Magath: No, I have not seen any games. Yet and will not.

Reza Ghazinouri: Have you ever heard about another Iranian football player, Ali Karimi. What is your perspective about him?

Felix Magath: Yes, as far as I remember he played at one of the friendly matches I had with VFB Stuttgart and I have also seen some tapes of him. His performance can be compared with Vahid Hashemian and Mehdi Mahdavikia. He is a good player.

Reza Ghazinouri: In the past, when Daei played in the Bundesliga, how did you see his style compared to others?

Felix Magath: He is individual that has very strong heading skills and a good goal scoring ability. It is just a shame that he did not stay in the Bundesliga for a couple of more years. Reason is that he definitely could perform better than he had done so far in Germany. It was just too early for him to move out and play somewhere else.

Reza Ghazinouri: Do you think Vahid Hashemian’s regret not to paly for his national team is the reason for doing everything possible to get into your 11 squad.

Felix Magath: Well, you have to ask him for that. However, he does a smart step to work hard to get into the team, before playing for his nation. It will not help him to leave us out in those important warm up session and play for the national team because that will not help him get settled in the team. Later, on when he is in the squad, he will have better opportunities to play for his national team.

Reza Ghazinouri: To sum it up, you are pretty confident that Vahid Hashemian is one of those players in your team that will play and has the potential for the big goals?

Felix Magath: I am very confident that Vahid is a player that can succeed in this team because besides being a great player, he is also a unique quality that makes his competitor in his team to work harder as before. He will get his chance in Bayern and I am happy to have him on board.

Reza Ghazinouri: I appreciate your time given to us

Felix Magath: Sure