Александр Нури хөлбөмбөгийн ертөнцийг орхиж, Германы баруун хойд хэсэгт гурван рестораныг удирдахаар болжээ
Вердер Бремен, Херта Берлин, Ингольштадт багуудыг удирдаж, Юрген Клинсманн болон Грегг Берхалтер нарын туслахчаар ажиллаж байсан Александр Нури хөлбөмбөгийн дасгалжуулагчийн карьераа өндөрлүүлж, МакДоналдс сүлжээ рестораны франчайз эзэмшигч болжээ. Тэрээр мэргэжлийн хөлбөмбөг дэх байнгын нүүдэл, тодорхойгүй байдлаас залхаж, гэр бүлийнхээ ирээдүйн тогтвортой байдлыг хангахын тулд энэхүү шийдвэрийг гаргасан бөгөөд одоо баруун хойд Герман дахь гурван салбарын 150 орчим ажилтныг удирдаж байна.
Өмнө нь Грекийн Кавала багт ажиллаж байгаад 2022 онд орхисноос хойш түүнд Германы доод лиг болон Ойрхи Дорнодын клубүүдээс санал ирсэн ч тогтворгүй байдал болон гэр бүлээрээ нүүх шаардлагатай байсан тул татгалзжээ. Франчайз эзэмшигч болохын тулд нэг жилийн хугацааг зарцуулж, олон шатны ярилцлага, сургалт, шалгаруулалтад хамрагдсаны эцэст нэгдүгээр сард эхний хоёр рестораныг хүлээн авч, зургадугаар сард гурав дахь салбараа нэмжээ.
Тэрээр хөлбөмбөгт өнгөрүүлсэн он жилүүд болон Юрген Клинсманн, Грегг Берхалтер нартай хамтран ажиллах явцдаа сурч мэдсэн удирдлагын арга барил, өсөн дэвжих сэтгэлгээг одоогийн бизнестээ амжилттай ашиглаж байгаа аж. Вердер Бремен багийг удирдан явуулж байхдаа үзүүлсэн амжилт болон цэнгэлдэх хүрээлэнгийн уур амьсгалыг үе үе дурсдаг ч өндөр түвшний дасгалжуулагчдын амьдралын стресс, тогтворгүй байдлыг үгүйлдэггүй гэдгээ онцолжээ.
Өдгөө тэрээр хөлбөмбөгийн “хөөсөрсөн ертөнц”-өөс ангижирч, гэр бүлийнхээ хамт МакДоналдс рестораны бизнесээ өргөжүүлэн, өсвөр үеийнхний хөлбөмбөгийн тэмцээнүүдийг дэмжин ажиллаж байна. Түүний шинэ амьдралын замналд Клинсманн, Торстен Фрингс болон Айльтон нарын хуучин нөхөд нь олон нийтийн сүлжээгээр дэмжлэг илгээжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Alexander Nouri, former manager of Werder Bremen, Hertha Berlin and Ingolstadt, assistant to Jurgen Klinsmann in Berlin and, briefly, Gregg Berhalter with the U.S. men’s national team, is talking about motivation and creating a healthy team environment.
“I think the same things drive people. To work in an environment where you are appreciated, where you are valuable, where you are a partner.
“I really focus on creating a culture in the organisation, where the people like to come to work, without much bad feeling or pressure. I said, ‘Hey, we are all responsible for creating this atmosphere. We make the framework, we give the rules, we make the structure, but at the end, we define the principles, how we work together, and we need to bring it to life every day’.”
Nouri, though, is not talking about a football team. Despite his experience in the game, which also goes back to a 13-year playing career mostly spent in the German lower leagues and a brief spell with the Seattle Sounders, Nouri has, in the past few years, turned his back on football.
His last coaching job was with Kavala in Greece, leaving in 2022. In the intervening years, he had offers from various lower-league German teams, some from clubs in the Middle East. He shadowed coaches at a few clubs. But nothing came up that particularly excited him: certainly not enough to uproot his family for what could be a brief posting. The instability of football was becoming wearing. He wanted something more secure.
Alexander Nouri during his time as head coach of Werder Bremen (Joerg Sarbach/AFP via Getty Images)
“It didn’t feel right anymore,” he says. “And the job is so demanding that it needs 100 per cent of you. If you do it with 98 per cent, it’s not right.”
So instead he’s putting his energy into his new life: running three branches of McDonald’s in north-west Germany.
“I just felt at this moment, this was the end of that life story (in football). And so I have to begin something new.
“It wasn’t a decision only of myself. It was a decision with my family, and we made it together after years of constant moves and uncertainty in professional soccer. We felt it was the right time to build a more stable future together.”
Becoming a McDonald’s franchisee takes around a year, incorporating the application process, several interviews, some training and a five-hour assessment where the applicant is presented with a test case to assess, evaluate and come up with a business plan.
Nouri did all of that, and took charge of his first two restaurants in January, adding a third in June. Across those three, he has around 150 employees. He isn’t exactly salting the fries and refilling the milkshake machines, and he has managers to run the day-to-day of the individual restaurants, so Nouri’s role is to oversee the three branches.
“It was a long process. Maybe about three years after leaving coaching, I reflected on what I really wanted from the next chapter of my life. I realised I was looking for stability. I realised I was looking for the chance to build something over the long term and the opportunity to create lasting impact.
“The last coaching jobs I had were short: you sign a three-year contract, but after half a year, you were out again. It’s a big challenge for your family. I was always looking for this stability. In professional football, it’s rare and only a few have the chance to build something in the long term.
“So when I was looking for something long term, McDonald’s with this system gave me the chance to build something as an entrepreneur — staying independent, but having this structure, worldwide, with one of the biggest brands.”
He talks a lot about how things he learned in football, and who he learned them from, remain useful in his new life.
“I was lucky to experience all of these great things, like working alongside Jurgen Klinsmann. Gregg Berhalter is a good friend of mine; he taught me lessons that continue to shape my leadership today.
“I learned a lot from these guys. I learned from Jurgen to have your confidence and your point of view, but always challenge it with different angles or perspectives, and then good things come together if you have different perspectives and, at the end, make a decision.
“The ‘growth mindset’, I learned from Jurgen and from Gregg. They always brought external expertise into the organisations to challenge their own processes and everything, and to experience that alongside those personalities was learning for me. And that helps me now in my job right now as well.”
It is slightly tricky to believe it when Nouri explains that he’s much happier doing this now, rather than being back in football. This was a man who used to say that, given the highs that coaching a team can bring — particularly when he took over Bremen in 2016 and led them from a relegation battle to the brink of European qualification — you “can’t find that kind of emotion in an office job”.
He obfuscates slightly when asked whether, if the phone went tomorrow with an offer of a plum job back in the Bundesliga, he would return to his old life. But he says he has no regrets, that he dreamed of being a manager in the Bundesliga, and he did that, so he describes himself as “very fulfilled”.
And it is much easier to believe him when he says he’s happy to have left behind the ups and downs of being a high-profile coach, which are great when things go well, but desperate when they don’t.
Alexander Nouri says he’s happy to have left the ups and downs of management behind (Robert Michael/AFP via Getty Images)
An extreme example is one of his classmates from when he did his coaching badges in 2016: Julian Nagelsmann. Sure, leading his country at the recent World Cup was a colossal honour. But Nagelsmann didn’t look like he enjoyed a second of it. He appeared stressed by an underperforming team, the weight of history and people — including Jurgen Klopp, who would turn out to be his successor — undermining him from the sidelines, unintentionally or otherwise. Meanwhile, Nouri’s existence over the past six months has been more low-key, but much more stable, much more level.
“When you do your license as a professional coach, they teach you that when you sign your contract with a team, you’re also signing your dismissal notice. I’m not missing this pressure.
“I had a very great phase with Werder Bremen where 11 games in a row, we didn’t lose. I think we won nine out of 11 and two draws, something like that.” He says “something like that”, as if he doesn’t know the numbers exactly: he absolutely knows the numbers exactly.
“I think it was one of the historical best second halves of a season ever played with Werder Bremen. You’re flying, everything is positive, and whatever you say, everything is great.
“And then as soon as you lose two or three games, everything is doubted, and everything is wrong.”
And then there’s a brief crack in his resolve, a remembrance of the snatched moments of glory that punctuate the stress of being a coach: “On the other hand, when you score in the 95th minute in front of 60,000 at a full home stadium… you’ll never get back these feelings.”
One of the things Nouri says he is enjoying the most about his new life is that his family is involved in a way that was clearly impossible in football. His wife Christina helps out with HR. His son Arian has worked a few shifts at one of the restaurants. “As a coach, I cannot pass that to my kids. But if I build something as an entrepreneur, maybe I can.”
He hasn’t completely left the game: he helps run youth football tournaments in connection with his restaurants, and has tapped up a few old friends to help promote them. Messages of goodwill from Klinsmann, Torsten Frings and, delightfully for Euro nostalgists and cult hero aficionados everywhere, former Bremen striker Ailton, have all appeared recently on the restaurants’ social media pages.
That’s as far as he will go, though. He has left the football “bubble”, as he describes it, and is looking forward to a long future at McDonald’s.
“I’m very fulfilled in myself. I have a clear vision, to be able to work towards this vision with people you love, with your family; that’s something very special.
“I believe in karma. I really want to be a good employer. I love what I’m doing.”
