Gemeenschap » Hattrick Press

World Cup Champions: Interview with Junker

Geschreven door AQP-Xose

Despite being a small country in real life, Denmark has always been one of the strongest communities in our HT universe. Denmark NT is in the Top 10 of the World Cup historical ranking with one gold, one silver and four bronze medals.

Twelve years have passed since that historic final against Sweden in India and the architect of Denmark's greatest Hattrick achievement is still very active in this game. His name is Junker (1540377), he is the current coach of U21 Comoros and on July 16, 2024 he will celebrate two decades in HT.

#1 You are close to reaching 20 years in this universe. What does Hattrick mean to you?

Tuff question. Things change. For now, I have great fun creating “top notch” players for the NT is what makes the three teams busy. In Faroe the finances are also solid enough so the team might be able to make some results. On a smaller scale this is also true for Comoros. But in Denmark the team is almost broke, so it is a farmer only team. So daily life in Hattrick is going with training some very talented players all the way.

For Faroe and Denmark, the players are trained as part of a longer project together with other managers to create a great generation of players for the U21 and NT. In Faroe the project is called GOLDEN GENERATION (117227) and in Denmark it is called Håndlangerne (117518). The goal is the same: To generate players good enough so the Country hopefully can go for results in the WC. The training of the Comoros players is not part of any greater “master plan” other than the goal is to make the players good enough for the NT.

#2 Denmark reached their first WC final at Greece 29 (2009), but lost to Germany. Three seasons later, under your leadership, your country won its first and only WC in history, defeating Sweden in the final. What was the key to success in this campaign?

The answer is continuity. It started when DongKong (378609) (a former manager). He decided to go for the NT chair. He got elected and invited me, Troelssj (152313) and mp-kaephoj (3355974) (other managers were involved but this was the primary tactics team) into a federation for tactics and scouting. We got to the final but lost. After this Troelssj was elected, and finally I got elected. In these eight seasons, we have the same people involved in tactics and scouting.

And was were able to get “farmers” to train the best players. So, the gold medal was a result of what DongKong started troelssj continued and I finished it.

Doing those seasons, we also were able to involve the community, and the “spasteam” (funteam) was making funny stories about the players. It also included a song by the way :-)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gRAYzCn2QU&ab_channel=MortenBakJensen)

#3 Two years after winning gold at WC, you were chosen as the coach of U20 Denmark. Why were you a candidate and what was your balance at the end of your term?

Well, not a great performance there from me. I thought that I could use my experience from the NT to create great results for the U20 as well. But it did not go well. It ended up that due to some very weak teams and three strong teams, all was up to the result in just a couple of matches. Where we did not have the skills and luck and did not qualify for the WC. At that time, I decided that U20 was not a thing for me. I was not happy with the need for luck you need there.

#4 Since the end of 2020 you have been very involved in the NT staff of Faroe, a country where you have had a second team since 2013. How would you describe this experience in one of the smallest communities in Europe?

When Hattrick in 2013 made it possible to have a second team there was no doubt in my mind it should be in Faroe. First of all, it is a part of Denmark. In a federation at that time, we had something about the fish Herring. In Danish the name of this fish is sild. But in this forum, it was called Zsild (pronounced like you are drunk…). So naturally this also had to be part of the club’s name :-).

And because of the team in Faroe, I have afterwards been visiting Faroe in real life at times. Through Hattrick learned a lot more about the Faroe and now love the nature up there.

Right now, we are a team creating 150 players for Faroe that all have NT potential. Those players are going to reach the NT now and the next eight seasons or so. The oldest players are close to 28, and the youngest about 25. I have four players on my Faroe team in this “GG”.

#5 In 2019 you created a third team in Comoros, where you were elected coach of the U21 team in April 2022 and re-elected in November of that same year after winning the U21 African Cup. Why did you choose this country?

I decided to create a third team to help Faroe with a secondary team for more GG players for Faroe. And elected a small country. And by coincidence it was Comoros. I also started to train two keepers for Faroe.

But after a while I hit a whole bunch of great playmakers in the youth school. And together with the “founder” of the GG (Saftevand) in Faroe we found a manager taking my two keepers for Faroe, so I could train my HG playmakers. Out of the six players I have kept the five players.

When my players were close to the U21, I was hoping that the former coach was going for another period. But he decided not to go to the office. And when I saw who else were candidates, I took a quick decision (after the election was started) and tried to get elected myself. I was elected and just like back in the old days we have a small federation for tactics and scouting, and even some of the same managers are part of this. So you can say the circle is not closed.

#6 Do you think Comoros can make history in the current U21 World Cup Trinidad & Tobago 35? What are your expectations?

The short answer is no. Despite it being a small country we have a lot of managers training young players for the U21. Here we are helped with the fact that Comoros does not have many local users. There is zero for the moment. Managers in general have a team here as a second or third team. They in general have more knowledge of that to do, and how to train.

But even then, the difference between the best teams in Europe and the rest of the world is too big. 10-20 weeks of training in advantage on the youth players make the difference.

My expectation is to qualify for the second stage of the WC. From here it would be almost impossible to get further.

#7 What advice would you give to those users who want to be a NT coach?

This is a difficult question. But to be prepared would be a good thing. In some countries at a given time there would be different things to focus on. If it is a new country, the success for a manager might not be the results. It might be more important to be the person who can organize the scouting and training of the youth players. In other countries it might be the results that are important.

To be prepared is also to know what the job also includes. And if things do not go as planned you might also come under some pressure from other managers not satisfied with you, and the choices you have been taken.

#8 Would you like to be the coach of Denmark again? Have you thought about returning to the position one day?

This is absolutely something I have been thinking about a lot of times. But for now It is not going to happen. The problem when you have been winning the WC is that you can only fail. It is not possible to make it better than last time.

#9 Are you happy with the current state of the game? Would you like to see more countries progressively? Maybe even Greenland?

I think Hattrick is at a good place now. Unfortunately it seems like the number of managers is still decreasing. In the long run this might be the end of Hattrick. But it is not easy to change if you look at how the world around us has changed in the last twenty years. It is up to Hattrick to decide if and where there should be new countries in Hattrick. If it can attract new managers, it would be great.

#10 And finally: what are you doing when you are not playing HT?

Working mostly. I love to run and also ski during the winter.