His boss believes! Can this Bundesliga player become a wonder striker? | OneFootball

"One miracle isn’t enough to stay up, it would take two," said Heidenheim’s Frank Schmidt at the start of March, when his team had just lost to Werder and were now eight points behind the relegation playoff spot. In recent weeks, however, one striker has kept hope of that double miracle alive.

For a long time this season, Budu Zivzivadze barely hit anything at all, and he also had to deal with a suspension after a red card and knee problems that kept him out for several months. But in what Sir Alex Ferguson once called "squeaky bum time" (roughly translated: the time when your nerves are shot; editor’s note), he has been fully there for Heidenheim, scoring three goals in FCH’s last three matches of the season run-in.

He was there, among other times, in the "all or nothing" game against St. Pauli, putting his side 1:0 up after just three minutes when he forced the ball over the line following a corner. In the end, Heidenheim won the match 2:0, a game in which defeat would already have meant certain relegation. Thanks to that win, not only has the inevitable been postponed, but the team at the bottom of the table has even crept to within four points of St. Pauli, who now occupy the relegation playoff spot, and can dare to hope again.

That means at least the first of the two miracles Frank Schmidt said would be necessary has probably already happened. The fact that his team can still believe in survival with three matchdays left is down to an incredible effort and Zivzivadze.

Between December 13, 2025 and April 11, 2026, they had failed to win a single Bundesliga match. They often came up short by the finest of margins, and even turned in good performances against some top teams. Really completely demoralizing, because it was never enough for three points. Until, yes, until Zivzivadze started scoring.

In the 3:1 win over Union Berlin three weeks ago, Mathias Honsak had first scored twice, but then Leopold Querfeld pulled one back in the 75th minute, which for a team that had gone so long without winning could very well have caused panic. But Zivzivadze, who had only been brought on minutes earlier, restored the two-goal cushion almost immediately, and Heidenheim celebrated their first win in what felt like an eternity.

In the following game, they lost to Freiburg (2:1) only shortly before the end, before the liberating win against St. Pauli followed. Suddenly, hope is back on the Swabian Alb.

But Frank Schmidt did not speak of two miracles without reason. This Saturday, Bayern Munich await, a team that has already shown against numerous opponents this season that miracles do not come true against them. Not even when they give up a three-goal lead, as Mainz 05 did last weekend.

Schmidt still believes: "We’ve already beaten them once, now we’re playing in Munich. We’ve often put in a decent performance there," he told 'Sky' after the last matchday. "If we want to achieve something really crazy, then we need to get something next week too. I know a lot of people will say he’s crazy for saying that right now, but I’m not going there just to make up the numbers."

But if Heidenheim lose as expected, they will be extremely dependent on the results of their rivals. Neither St. Pauli nor Wolfsburg can afford to win another game in the coming weeks and, from FCH’s point of view, ideally should not pick up any more points at all, because on the final matchday the two clubs play each other, which means that at least one of them is guaranteed to get points.

But of course, they also have to take care of their own business. If Zivzivadze wants to become a true "miracle" striker, he has to fire his club to safety in the final two matches against Cologne and Mainz. If he does not manage that, he will merely be remembered as the man who allowed Heidenheim to say goodbye to the Bundesliga with dignity. Then again, that is probably already more than Frank Schmidt would have dared to dream of at the start of March.

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

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