Marc Kosicke: The Strategist Behind Jürgen Klopp's Vision
Jürgen Klopp did not arrive at the DFB alone. He brought the man who has quietly shaped some of German football’s most powerful ideas for nearly two decades.
Marc Kosicke, long known as Klopp’s right-hand man, has been officially installed as “assistant coach for strategy, development and innovation” with the national team. To clear the way, he has stepped down as managing director of his company Projekt Five and ended his advisory work for other coaches. All in behind Klopp. Again.
“It is not enough for only a head coach to come in,” Klopp said at his unveiling. “We have to change a great many things. We want to turn over every stone.” If you know Kosicke’s track record, that sounds less like a slogan and more like a job description.
From Werder fan to Bayern’s identity architect
Kosicke’s influence in German football has rarely been centre stage, but it has been everywhere. Before he became the prototype of the modern coach adviser – a role he helped invent and professionalise – he spent years working with major brands like Nike and Adidas. Later, he advised some of the game’s leading coaches, including Julian Nagelsmann until 2021.
The irony is delicious. A Bremen-born, self-confessed Werder fan, a close confidant of Borussia Dortmund’s most successful modern coach, helped give Bayern Munich its defining motto.
“Mia san mia.”
The phrase had always floated around Bavaria, part dialect, part attitude. Kosicke turned it into Bayern’s official slogan and wrapped an entire value system around it.
The story began, of all places, on a flight to Switzerland in 2008. Kosicke was travelling to a FIFA event with his then business partner Oliver Bierhoff. On the same plane: Uli Hoeneß. The Bayern boss was frustrated, complaining about his own players and lamenting that nobody really knew what Bayern stood for anymore.
Kosicke asked him the obvious question: what did Hoeneß think Bayern actually represented? Hoeneß, by Kosicke’s telling, did not have a clear answer.
That was the opening.
Kosicke explained that companies like Nike and Adidas worked with internal “bibles” – documents that spelled out values and messages for every employee. Hoeneß wanted exactly that for Bayern and asked Kosicke if he could create it.
“With 100 per cent cluelessness but a lot of self-confidence,” Kosicke later recalled, he agreed. Hoeneß made one thing clear: he wanted Kosicke himself, not a polished consulting firm “tie-wearing troupe”.
Building the Bayern “bible”
What followed was an unusual working group that cut across the club’s hierarchy. People from the fan shop, marketing staff, the kit man, the youth coordinator, media chief Stefan Mennerich and chief scout Wolfgang Dremmler all sat at the same table. For four weeks, they worked on defining what Bayern Munich should stand for.
The slogan itself, though, was never up for debate in Kosicke’s mind. He already had “Mia san mia” in his head from that first conversation on the plane. He simply chose not to reveal it too early. First, he wanted the values that would sit beneath it.
By the end, the group had settled on 16 “commandments” – concrete guidelines rather than vague buzzwords. Among them: “We are a family and stand by one another.” And: “We do not communicate about one another in public.” Principles that would later be quoted every time Bayern closed ranks or handled internal disputes behind closed doors.
For the board presentation, Kosicke went all in on symbolism. He had prototype copies of the Bayern “bible” bound in real lederhosen leather. When he unveiled the title, the reaction was immediate. The room loved it.
Then came the punchline.
Hoeneß praised the slogan but pointed at a small, very Bavarian problem. On the cover it didn’t say “Mia san mia” but “Mir san mir”. Kosicke, the man from Bremen, had tripped over the dialect. “That was the only thing we still had to change,” he later admitted.
The rest stayed. The values, the structure, the identity.
Kosicke also produced a roadmap for how Bayern should embed this culture inside the club. His idea was simple and ruthless in its consistency: every new arrival would receive the “bible” as part of their onboarding. Office staff, youth players from Fürstenfeldbruck, big-name signings like Sadio Mané – all would be handed the same message: this is who we are, this is how we behave.
When he sent his invoice, Kosicke assigned his rights to the slogan to Bayern and gave them another assurance: as a Bremen native and adviser to Jürgen Klopp, he would not parade himself as the great inventor of “Mia san mia”.
The work spoke loudly enough.
The strategist behind the touchline
Kosicke’s journey from brand consultant to Bayern’s identity architect and Klopp’s long-time adviser underlines why the DFB move matters. He is not just an assistant in the classic coaching sense. He is a strategist, a culture builder, someone who thinks in systems and symbols.
For almost 20 years, he has been at Klopp’s side, shaping careers, negotiations and long-term planning. Now, in Frankfurt and across Germany, that same combination of corporate precision and football instinct will be aimed at rebuilding a national team setup that has lost its way.
Klopp wants to “turn over every stone”. Kosicke is the man who once bound Bayern’s soul in lederhosen leather and turned a dialect phrase into a doctrine.
The DFB has not just hired a coach. It has imported an entire way of thinking.
