Sunay Acar spent over a decade at VfB Homberg. In April, they parted ways. RevierSport spoke to the 43-year-old coach.
These were turbulent times in the career of Sunay Acar. In February 2022, the coach extended his contract with the then regional league team VfB Homberg, but on 4 April came the big blow: Acar and Homberg parted ways! The coach did not want to talk about this separation – until now.
Almost four months after the surprising end at his heart’s club, the family man talks to RevierSport about the reasons. “After my contract extension, we had different views about the club’s objectives with regard to the upcoming Oberliga season. VfB Homberg then informed me that further cooperation no longer made sense. With some distance, we sat down together again and shook hands. The contract has since been terminated,” explains the A-licence holder.
I was in Homberg for over 13 years. I’m totally grateful to the club for the trust and would never back down. I wish VfB Homberg only the best.
Sunay Acar.
For Acar, VfB Homberg was his second family. In his active football career, the now 43-year-old already played for the Duisburg side for over seven years and was coach of the reserve team for four seasons before taking up his post as first-team coach (2020). “I was at Homberg for over 13 years. I am totally grateful to the club for the trust they have placed in me, and I would never go after them. I wish VfB Homberg only the best. It was a great time that I don’t want to miss. I got to know a lot of great footballers and people and was proud of how much discipline and heart and soul the team played with. The crowning achievement was, of course, staying in the league in the first season, when we scored 35 points,” Acar emphasises.
During that time, Acar, whose main job is as an aviation security officer at Düsseldorf Airport, and goalkeeping coach Oliver Adler had to work extremely intensively and meticulously so that the club could stand up to the big, economically much stronger traditional teams. Looking back, the Duisburg native describes the cooperation with Adler as “totally honest, friendly and sincere”.
Acar reflects: “In the first year, we had no athletics coach, co-trainer or video analyst. Oliver Adler and I did that on our own for months. Oli then took over as co-trainer in addition to his job as goalkeeping coach, and I took care of the athletics and individual training. I think it was unique in Germany for two people to manage a regional league team. That took a lot of energy, even though it was fun. The club then gradually filled these positions to take the pressure off us. “
In football, I don’t want to rule anything out, but I haven’t set myself a time limit and I’m open to what comes.
The coach on his future.
Since leaving Homberg in April, Sunay Acar has yet to find a new club. It was a conscious decision to retire from football for the time being. In the meantime, however, he seems ready for a new challenge.
The 43-year-old says about his future: “I spend a lot of time with my family and feel rested after two intensive years. Right at the beginning there were enquiries, but that came too soon for me. I needed time to collect myself. At my new club, it’s important to me that the structures are right and that there’s a great relationship of trust between everyone involved – then even the league is irrelevant. I don’t want to rule anything out in football, but I haven’t set myself a time limit and I’m open to what comes next. “