Opposition Check: Fortuna Düsseldorf

Humanity is most important to him. That was already the case when he was still standing on the lawn. And it still is today. “Mutual respect and mutual appreciation are always important,” emphasised Daniel Thioune in an interview with the online portal mopo.de. Common ground. That’s what the head coach of Fortuna Düsseldorf is all about. Work together. Working together to make dreams come true. That’s what he stands for. “I always want to achieve the maximum – wherever I am at the moment. So I also want to make my dreams come true with this club,” said the coach of Fortuna Düsseldorf in an interview with kicker.

And the coach is holding on to what is probably one of his biggest dreams: to get a taste of football in the Bundesliga and compete with the best teams in Germany. But this dream has (still) been denied him. In his previous coaching career, Thioune managed to make the jump from the third division to the second highest German league. With VfL Osnabrück he won the 3rd league championship in the 2018/19 season. He then took over Hamburger SV with the aim of getting promoted to the 1st Bundesliga – a goal that he narrowly missed with the Hanseatic League. At the end of the 2020/21 season, the team finished the season in fourth place.

However, Thioune never gave up his ambitions. Since he took over as coach at Fortuna Düsseldorf in March 2022, he has continued to pursue the goal of achieving the maximum. Under his leadership, the team showed significant improvement and ended the 2022/23 season in a solid place in the upper mid-table of the 2nd Bundesliga. As is well known, Thioune’s team missed out on promotion to the Bundesliga last season. Daniel Thioune and Fortuna are now starting the new season with fresh momentum and some new faces in the squad. They want to work together to make their dreams come true. And their head coach will set an inspiring role model.

The Rhinelanders are characterised by their attacking power – at least that was the case impressively last season. With 72 goals in the last season, the Düsseldorf team took top spot in the 2nd Bundesliga. Above all, Christos Tzolis was a guarantee for goals and scored 22 goals. However, the top scorer is no longer available to Fortuna and instead joined Club Bruges in the summer. The load must therefore be distributed across several shoulders. Düsseldorf has a few to choose from: Vincent Vermeij, for example, scored twelve goals last season, while Ao Tanaka (7), Felix Klaus (6) and Isak Johannesson (4) were particularly dangerous.

Isak Johannesson. The 21-year-old has been passionate about football since he was a child. Growing up with the ball at his feet, his role models were Argentine legend Lionel Messi and Icelandic midfielder Aron Elís Thrándarson. “Football is the best thing you can do,” said the Icelandic international, who initially moved to Fortuna on loan in 2022 and has been permanently employed by the 95ers since this summer. At the age of 17, Johannesson made his debut for Iceland’s national team and played 27 games in which he scored three goals.

The central midfielder was part of the FC Copenhagen squad for two years before moving to Fortuna, where he gained numerous experiences in the Danish league: two championship titles, as well as Danish Cup winners and participation in the Champions League with games against Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and FC Seville on his CV. And yet Johannesson couldn’t really leave his mark in Copenhagen. He played 61 competitive games for the Danes, but was only on the field for 2,398 of a possible 5,490 minutes. In short: he rarely had the opportunity to show his skills in his favorite position.

The move to Fortuna, on the other hand, gave him a boost and more scope in his position to finally let his talent blossom. With success. Goals and assists piled up. Last season he made 36 competitive appearances, scoring seven goals and providing nine assists. Coach Daniel Thioune also noticed this positive development and described Isak Johannesson to the kicker sports magazine as “a little diamond”. And further praised: “It’s fun to work with him.”