Our mission to lead an East German club to Bundesliga glory begins here as OstDeutsche Sieg kicks off in the full version of Football Manager 2023. Find out all about the revamped save concept in Part 1 here.
Ruprecht Prusseit – which translates to “Robert a Prussian” – fell into football management when he picked up a nasty ankle injury during a Sunday League match near his home in Dresden. His team had been trailing 2-0 after an hour when he picked up the injury and the manager was so exasperated with the team’s efforts that he walked off for a cigarette and to read the daily edition of Bild.
38-year-old Prusseit dusted himself off, popped a bandage around his poorly ankle and threw himself into managing the team. He took to management like a duckling to water as his tactical changes inspired a superb comeback, and his team won 3-2. His teammates encouraged him to hang up his boots and take control of managing the Sunday League side full-time. And, after being slightly offended by their eagerness to see him retire, he eventually agreed and swiftly led his pals to the local league title.
Prusseit took his boys down the local beer hall and it’s safe to say the celebrations got a little out of hand. But his brief spell as a Sunday League manager gave Prusseit a real taste for football management. So he wasted no time in visiting the German FA website and putting his name down to attend the course to obtain his National C Licence. Armed with that licence, he bid “auf wiedersehn” to his former teammates and set about pursuing his dream to become a real-life Football Manager.
The Job Hunt
Upon loading up FM23, two playable East German clubs had job vacancies. So Prusseit dusted off his CV and submitted applications to fifth-tier side 1. FC Frankfurt and sixth-tier SV Dessau 05. To his delight, his mobile phone was quickly buzzing away as both sides were keen to come in to attend an interview. First up, on 10 July 2022, was Dessau, who seemed relatively pleased with his responses and shared vision for the club. Later that day, FC Frankfurt got in touch and seemed equally pleased with Prusseit’s interaction.
Four days later, it was Frankfurt that got back in touch first, asking Prusseit for his suggested staff changes, which he submitted having removed a few of the pointless roles – having noted that none of the sackings would render any compensation necessary. And Frankfurt only took one day to agree to those changes and offered Prusseit his first-ever job as a football manager. However, he was keen to see if Dessau were also interested, so he delayed the offer for a week.
On 21 July, Dessau eventually did make him an offer. So Prusseit now had a decision to make, but he couldn’t find Frankfurt’s offer in his inbox to compare the two, so he delayed Dessau too.
And, as he had suspected, when Frankfurt came back he realised they weren’t offering him a wage and were massive favourites to be relegated. So Prusseit made the unusual decision to choose the club in the lower tier. He negotiated a contract worth £700 per week and signed on the dotted line.
Who are SV Dessau 05?
SV Dessau 05 is a semi-professional club based in the town of Dessau in the Saxony-Anhalt state. The club’s claim to fame is being the winner of the inaugural FDGB-Pokal, or East German Cup, in 1949. Die Nullfuenfer (The 05’s) club play at the 5,000-capacity Sportplatz Schillerpark. They also have terrible facilities with 2s across the board and £5,000 in the bank and no transfer budget but a £3,200 weekly wage budget of which they were spending just £1,200.
Dessau play in the German Verbandsliga Saxonia-Anhalt, which is one of the many divisions in the sixth and final playable tier of this German database. The top two teams get promoted into Oberliga and the bottom two… well, based on what happened in the previous OstDeutscher Sieg, it’s probably best not to think about that.
Meet The SV Dessau 05 Squad
Prusseit was a little alarmed that, upon arriving at Dessau, there were just seven players in his first-team squad, and one of those could be leaving. However, he was thanking his decision to “add players to playable teams.” That essentially meant the club had a youth intake in the summer of 2022, which delivered 15 “elite talents!” So Prusseit promoted a host of those prospects
The best players at the club are 25-year-old goalkeeper Zicos Resvanis, 33-year-old American striker Branden Stelmak and 36-year-old midfielder Robert Römer, who doubles up as a coach, And those are the only three players at the club who earn a wage.
After that, they were reliant on newgens led by winger Koffi Laba, holding midfielder Iskilou Akakpo, attacking midfielder Wael Salhi, striker Thabang Ntsele, right-winger Aluong Yaak, versatile defender Karamoko Sylla and right-back Agostinho Mendes. However, 15-year-olds can’t be registered for the league squad.
Straight Into German Verbandsliga Saxonia-Anhalt
Dessau are fancied as a decent bet to achieve promotion with an expected 6th-place finish and odds of 33/1 to win the league, along with the teams predicted to finish 3rd to 9th. Magdeburg II are massive favourites at 1/91 followed by fellow East German side Lok Stendal at 25/1.
Upon Prusseit’s arrival, Dessau were already three games into their season and had won one, drawn one and lost one. So his first-ever match as a Football Manager took place just two days after he was appointed. And truth be told, he didn’t really know what formation to play or which players to select, so he initially went with a 4-4-1-1. But that didn’t work as they wasted chances and gifted Bitterfeld a goal with their only shot of the first half. So he moved to a 4-4-2 and they just about nicked a 2-2 draw.
His first away game followed at Barleben and they were a little unlucky to lose 2-1. A switch to 4-3-3 at home to Gardelegen worked wonders as Stelmak scored a penalty after seven minutes, hit a 30-yard screamer two minutes later and wrapped up his hat-trick with another penalty inside 15 minutes. Not done there, Salhi teed the striker up for a 4th after 35 minutes then he latched onto a Resvanis clearance to slam home a fifth! The second half was quieter but Stelmak added a superb sixth as he curled home a 25-yard free-kick for a 6-2 victory.
Stelmak was at it again next time out at Preussen, scoring a hat-trick inside 18 minutes and added a late fourth to cap a 4-1 victory. He slacked off at Tangermünde, taking 29 minutes to score a hat-trick then again scoring a late fourth in a 4-1 win. So that was 14 goals in three games! He then shockingly only scored once as Labba scored his first two goals and the club’s youngest-ever goalscorer aged 16 years 45 days in a third-consecutive 4-1 win over Ammendorf.
Next up was Prusseit’s first all-East German clash at home to Lok Stendal and Stelmak again stepped up with a double to inspire a 2-0 win. The winning streak ended with a 0-0 at home to Blau-Weiß Dölau ten they strangely played Stendal again, this time a little unlucky to lose 2-1. But that man Stelmak got them back on track with a brace in a 3-0 win over bottom side Farnstädt and his fourth hat-trick in nine games as Dessau thumped 8th-place Amsdorf 5-1 away.
So in Prusseit’s first 10 games of football management, he’d led Dessau to six wins, two draws and two defeats, sitting in 4th place only three points off the second promotion spot. Stelmak leads the goalscoring charts with 23 in 13 and Yaak has the second-most assists with seven.
Away from league matters, Prusseit took control of his first cup game as Dessau entered the preliminary round of Verbandspokal Sachsen-Anhalt against Tangermünde. And they had Römer to thank as he scored one and made another to inspire a 3-1 victory and Prusseit’s first-ever win. That sent them straight into the quarter-final much later in the season.
Could Prusseit maintain his strong start to life as a Football Manager with Dessau? Join us on Monday to find out!
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