🤯 Brilliant smokescreen: has this German coach fooled everyone? | OneFootball

Tim Walter is a coach who divides opinion. That’s nothing new. Even during his time at HSV, many quickly saw him as a somewhat different kind of cult coach, while others found the occasionally somewhat self-satisfied way he presented himself in public rather less likable.

Most recently, a bizarre press conference by Walter, who has once again been coaching second-division side Holstein Kiel since February, caused quite a stir.

Before the match against Fortuna Düsseldorf on matchday 29, he gave memorable answers to the questions from the journalists present — if he answered at all. Overall, the coach responded only very briefly and made it clear that talking to the media is probably not one of his favorite parts of being a manager.

When asked about the status of an injured player, the 50-year-old referred reporters to his medical staff and left several journalists hanging. 

He criticized one because he read out his question, while another got it even worse.

To his question, he replied: “Very good. Very well spotted, you’re wrong.” To another reporter, he offered that they could swap jobs: “Then you can do my job, I’ll do yours — and then you can decide.”

📸 Selim Sudheimer - 2026 Getty Images

In short: Walter was not on good terms with the media at all — and the resulting wave of headlines followed promptly.

Incidentally, his team won the following Friday evening’s match 2-1 away to struggling Fortuna Düsseldorf.

That led to speculation online that the scandalous press conference might have been a clever tactic to shift the critical media’s attention away from his team and onto him personally.

In terms of headlines, that definitely worked, and at the following press conference ahead of the clash with Kaiserslautern, Tim Walter showed a very different side of himself.

Beforehand, there was even a statement about the previous week’s media session, once again emphasizing that only sporting questions relating to the matchday would be answered.

Walter, however, was in a joking mood and used the temperature in the room as an excuse to take off his “new Holstein Kiel jacket” and hang it over his chair. There was even a little promo from the Kiel coach (“available in the fan shop”) before he sat down again, saying: “By the way, I’m in a good mood.”

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So this time, the journalists present were lucky.

And the good mood continued on the pitch too: on Friday evening, Kiel beat 1. FC Kaiserslautern convincingly 3-0 at the Holstein-Stadion, taking another step toward survival.

You can think what you like about Walter and his bad-tempered dealings with the media — whether it was tactical or not — but right now, his work is proving him right. Holstein Kiel have taken ten points from their last four matches and are clearly on course to stay up.

What do you think? Could the scandalous press conference really have been tactical? Or did Walter simply get out of bed on the wrong side that day? Write it in the comments!

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 Selim Sudheimer - 2026 Getty Images