Peter Hyballa stepped down as trainer of Esbjerg fB on Wednesday, after an extremely turbulent start. The 45-year-old German-Dutch trainer speaks against BN DeStem extensively about his departure from the Danish club, where 21 players had expressed their ‘strong distrust’ of Hyballa and his coaching staff in a letter. “It was bullying, I’ve never experienced that. I was a terror trainer, the tabloid press was after me and the players wrote a letter,” Hyballa said.
Hyballa confirms that he resigned himself. “I am not Pietje Pannekoek. I had to eat so much shit. Psychological terror. That might be the case as a trainer. You get paid for that too, but I only have one life, I thought to myself. And I consider myself a nice man. So I give myself a nice life. So, I thought, let those pennies sit comfortably,” the coach says. The selection accused Hyballa in the letter, which was published in the Danish newspaper Extra Bladet, of ‘threats of dismissal, mocking, sexist and degrading comments’.
For example, Hyballa is said to have repeatedly called and even beat players ‘fat’, ‘dumb’ or a ‘dumb horse’. The trainer himself denied those allegations and now emphasizes that the selection itself is not free. “I have a sense of humour. Lots of humor. And love to laugh. But don’t touch my family. They got threats. And racism. I’m a left-oriented guy, you know that. Don’t bring WWII to me. I am more Dutch than German. By systematically labeling me about that scary time, you touch my family in the heart. It made me cry.”
Hyballa states that there is a ‘conspiracy’ and that the players have tried to destroy him. Rafael van der Vaart was appointed on Tuesday as assistant coach and club ambassador to support Hyballa, but the former midfielder came to the conclusion after a conversation with the coach that it no longer made sense. “He understood me. I would train Rafael as a trainer. He would help me in contact with the Danes. But he also saw it. This made no sense anymore. Then everything came out. I hugged him.”
Extra Bladet wrote that Hyballa has repeatedly attempted to resign in recent weeks, but Esbjerg’s American owners wanted to keep him. He has finally thrown in the towel. It means that the former trainer of Sturm Graz, NEC, DAC, NAC Breda and Wisla Krakow, among others, is looking for a new employer. “The Netherlands or Germany, I want to work there. I went home barefoot.”