When asked about the biggest difference between his everyday life in England and the one he was accustomed to in Germany before joining Huddersfield Town last summer, Christopher Schindler smiles and replies: “Handymen. In Germany if you’ve got a problem, you call somebody and they solve it. Here, you call someone, they come out and two weeks later you’ve got another problem. Maybe they just want to come back to have a chat with you or something?”
Or maybe those handymen are just conducting a test, trying to find out if it is possible to rile a good-humoured 27-year-old whose serene authority in central defence has been a key feature of Huddersfield’s extraordinary rise this season? On Monday, that season could reach a climax few foresaw, as Huddersfield take on Reading at Wembley in the play-off final for a place in the Premier League. On the pitch, at least, Schindler has found an efficiency that he seldom experienced in Germany, where the club he was at for 17 years, 1860 Munich, became a byword for instability, stuck in the second division for the past 13 years and churning through at least two managers per season.
“People here told me it’s comparable to Leeds,” says Schindler, who joined 1860 Munich as an eight year old before becoming a club stalwart and captain. Fans loved him and he never had any intention of leaving until he got a call last summer from David Wagner, a man he had not met and the manager of a club he had never heard of. After talking to Wagner, Schindler realised that he was extremely riled by Munich’s serial bungling and very excited about Huddersfield’s plan to progress.
“The boss called me and he wanted to invite me to see what is happening here,” says Schindler. “He told me about the players he wanted to sign. Not specific names but the positions and the way he wanted to play. He showed me videos of how we would play. I felt challenged.”
The clarity of Wagner’s vision made a mark on Schindler. “It is totally different here. In Munich we had so many different styles because we had so many different bosses, coaches and so on. It was unbelievable. Everybody tried their best and wanted success but when you have so many coaches with so many different players who are brought in, it’s hard to get that union on the pitch. That was the problem we had.
“Everybody tried their best but we were not a team. My whole time as a professional there we had that frustration and supporters were upset because at the start of every year we thought: ‘Now we will change things,’ but it got worse. Here, at Huddersfield, we are really a team.”
It is a tribute to Wagner that he has managed to create such unity fast and despite so many of the players being new, with Schindler being one of 11 to have arrived since last summer. Five of those are German, including two of Schindler’s defensive partners, his fellow centre-back, Michael Hefele, and the left-back, Chris Löwe. Schindler was initially wary about being surrounded by so many compatriots, having seen things go wrong at 1860 Munich when that club went through a spell of signing Spaniards. He spoke of his concerns to Wagner before committing himself.
“He said straight away: ‘Yes, I’ve thought about that and it’s important to have good characters in the team no matter where they’re from. The character has to be good.’” Hefele and Löwe were, like Schindler, captains at their previous clubs and they and the other Germans, Elias Kachunga and Collin Quaner, have blended perfectly with their team-mates.
If the shared sense of purpose made a welcome change for Schindler, the physical demands of the Championship were a shock. “Leeds away, in September,” he says, recalling the match that served as his crash course in Championship culture. “I was hit by two challenges where I thought: ‘In Germany he would be suspended for that.’ But here it wasn’t even a foul. I went: ‘OK, it’s like that here’. Also, the duels in the air are very different. So to protect yourself you have to give this intensity. If you make like you have to be careful and there is no tension in your body, then it is more likely that you will get injured. That’s good to know.”
Schindler has gained five kilograms of muscle over the season, mainly, he says, thanks to the dietary instructions given by Huddersfield’s backroom staff rather than through additional training. There is, he says, no time for extra training in England. “This is the hardest thing to adapt to,” he says. “Not just in terms of the body but also to be mentally fresh. You can’t be at your highest level of concentration for 46 games – it’s impossible in my opinion. But what is good about the way we play is that we are a real team and when you are not on a good day you know that one of the other guys can help, maybe win some challenges for you. This has been the hardest season of my life but it’s easier when you are successful.”
Since before the play-off semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday, Wagner has been showing the players photographs of Wembley. “Some are just of the stadium, some are of Huddersfield supporters celebrating when they won the League One play-off in 2012,” says Schindler. “It’s inspiring.”
The celebrations will be even wilder if Huddersfield win at Wembley again and end the club’s 45-year wait for the a return to the top flight. “Playing in the Premier League is the dream. But it’s best not to talk about it too much at the moment.”
Several of Schindler’s old team-mates had intended to come cheer him on at Wembley but had to abort that plan because 1860 are involved in their own play-off – to avoid relegation to Germany’s third tier.
