The constellation is exciting.

Four days after being eliminated from the DFB Cup, FSV Mainz 05 ended their first English week of the year at the bottom of the table, Spielvereinigung Greuther Fürth.

An opponent whose position in the table suggests that anything but a Rheinhessen victory would be disappointing.

But apart from the fact that the bottom of the Bundesliga team, who are only seven points behind, have only lost one of their last five games, the Mainz team has been struggling with their personal situation.

And now the coach is out.

Bo Svensson is suspended for the match at Ronhof after he was booked for the fourth time this season in Bochum last Saturday – as the first of his kind. One of his predecessors in Mainz, Sandro Schwarz, was the first professional coach to receive a yellow card at the end of 2019 and had to break off contact with the team and the coaching staff half an hour before kick-off in the coming game. Svensson is at least allowed to sit in the stands, go into the dressing room during the break and keep in touch with the bench. "But I'm not allowed to actively coach," he says.

Instead of his, this takes over "Babak?

Who?”, as the “Kicker” writes.

The assistant coach, who is well known in the soccer scene in the state capital and the region: Babak Keyhanfar, born in Mainz with Iranian roots, who was one of the best strikers in the Rhineland-Palatinate/Saar Oberliga when he was playing for the district club SV Gonsenheim.

A goalscorer with a lightning-fast start that is still to be admired today when celebrating an 05 goal.

As a player, Keyhanfar was endowed with qualities that those responsible for FSV also demand from their players: aggressive, poisonous, quick-witted, hungry.

"Emotional Matter"

His coaching career began at the same time in the Gonsenheim youth team, later he took over the first team for two years and then switched to the youth academy of the 05er. As assistant coach of the U19s, Bo Svensson was in charge. The chemistry between the two was right from the start, when Svensson took over the Austrian second division club FC Liefering for the next season, he did not catch up with Keyhanfar about six months later. And in January 2021, the duo returned to Bruchweg in a new role.

"It was a dream come true for me," says Keyhanfar. "I used to be a fan at Bruchweg and later experienced the time with and after the move to the arena very intensively as a friend of Yunus Malli. Then standing on the sidelines and being a part of it all is a very emotional affair and also a story that makes me proud.

Emotionally, impulsively, the 36-year-old also lives every game of his team, against him head coach Svensson sometimes comes off as a stoic. Again and again the two put their heads together during a match to discuss tactical and personal matters. "We have a similar mindset, a similar vision of a football team," says Keyhanfar. “Both in terms of content and everything that characterizes a functioning collective. We know how others tick and what they expect from you. The fact that I can actively contribute is not only allowed, but also something that Bo wishes for.”

On Saturday (3.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga and on Sky) he will do this for the first time in a Bundesliga game;

he had already filled this part in Austria when Svensson was in quarantine due to a corona infection.

The boss left no doubt on Friday that he fully trusts his assistant.

“Babak has a very good relationship with the boys.

I believe they will walk through fire for him.”