one of my absolute favorites!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

"Trainer!", which means "Coach!", is a German television film from 2013, so as of today this film will have its 5th anniversary next year. First of all, it needs to be said that the running time of 90 minutes is not correct, at least not in the version I watched as that one went on for almost an hour more. The writer and director is Aljoscha Pause and the name was familiar to me before because I remember him working as a soccer commentator too, a fairly unique combination in the German film/sports industry. Anyway, I had quite a few problems with this one here. First of all, I think you must be a huge fan of football already to appreciate this work and I am not (anymore). This is not a kind of film that will get you interested in the subject. Besides, from a more personal perspective I found almost everybody in here relatively unlikable, the players and officials as well as the three coaches in the center of it all. And if we look at where they are today (unemployed, league 3, hard-stuck league 2), then honestly their careers are not as impressive to me as the film is trying to suggest, even if that wasn't known back then yet. From a filmmaking perspective, the movie clearly lacks in structure. Jumps between the protagonists and interviews with other more known coaches like Klopp or Neururer felt pretty random and the rushed-in drama at the end about possible promotion really felt out of place and for the sake of it. Yes there are some interesting aspects and interviews in this documentary and the film pretty much never pretends to be anything that it isn't, also in terms of the title, but honestly there are just way too many forgettable sequences and it was clearly too long for its own good. I give it a thumbs-down and my recommendation is as follows: Only watch it if you really love soccer.