From Celtic and Barrowfield to Berlin and the Bundesliga - Mark Fotheringham Big Interview

And succeed he has.

While he may well be made from girders, it is the Scotsman’s Vorsprung Durch Technik as a football coach that has made him something of a coaching rising star in Germany.

The former Celtic youngster has leapt ahead in that realm of football through his technical abilities and willingness to embrace new technology. Those qualities saw him stand alongside German sporting legend Felix Magath as one of the people who saved Hertha Berlin from relegation when all seemed lost.

To be fair to Fotheringham, though, he was never short of technique or talent throughout his playing career either.

The midfielder only played three games for Celtic’s first team upon becoming the club’s youngest ever competitive debutant in May 2000.

Former Hoops boss Kenny Dalglish hailed him as the next big thing but it was Tommy Burns and renowned football lawyer Andy Gross who were to have the most profound influence on his life – and ensure his talents were known outwith the country of his birth.

“I owe everything to Tommy,” Fotheringham told The Celtic Way. “When I was a young player at Celtic it was him who put so much belief into me. I miss Tommy so much, I just wish that had the chance to share my success in my career with him.

"It was Tommy who introduced me to Andy Gross when I was coming through the youth ranks at Celtic and he became a hugely important person in my life. The two of them were close friends. Tommy knew I was a technical player and that the European environment would suit me.

“It was also Tommy who introduced me to Andy when I was coming through the youth ranks at Celtic. He became a hugely important person in my life too. The both of them were close friends. Tommy knew I was a technical player and said the European environment would suit me. He inspired me to move away from Scotland and mature as a man and a player.”

Fotheringham did not go abroad immediately though. His first post-Celtic transfer was to his hometown club Dundee, where he played more than 50 games. Two years later he found himself heading to the continent when he signed for German side Freiburg.

“I never learned how to be a footballer really until I went to Freiburg,” he said. “That move started me on the road to understanding systems and the tactical side of the game.

“It was Andy who got me the move to Freiburg. He opened many doors for me in Europe.

"See, everything is done for you at Celtic to an extent. When I went to Freiburg I just thought ‘wow’. The way German football teams train, the volume of it, was quality.

“I fell in love with German football. I felt anything was possible after that. It was up to me to go and do the business and so far I have been doing it.”

It is fair to say Fotheringham led a rather nomadic existence as a player after his season east of the Rhine. As well as spells in England with Norwich City, Notts County and Fulham he had stints in Cyprus with Anorthosis Famagusta and FC Aarau in Switzerland. Before retiring he ticked off playing time with Dundee United, Ross County, Livingston and Cowdenbeath too.

The 38-year-old insists he can chart his personal development as a coach all the way back to those early days at Celtic as well as his time as a senior player at Notts County.

“I was clearly managing and doing coaching things in the park even though I was blissfully unaware that I was doing it,” he recalled.

Fotheringham, second from left, was in the first-team squad when Martin O'Neill arrived

"When I was at Celtic if Shaun Maloney didn't track back I would bark orders at him, or if Liam Miller was trying too many nutmegs I would be shouting at him. I was never frightened to do that. It was all about the team winning and putting on a performance.”

Never one to keep his mouth shut in the dressing room, at Notts County Fotheringham remembers only too vividly the arguments that he had with Shaun Derry when the new manager changed the team’s style of play to route-one football back in season 2013-14.

"We had Chris Kiwomya as manager at the start and everything was great but then all of a sudden Shaun Derry came in and changed the style a bit and it didn't really suit us,” he explained.

"My biggest problem was that if I am playing for a manager and they just want to adopt long-ball tactics then I used to turn around and say that I had been brought up playing football a certain way and that this long-ball stuff was against my DNA.

"If someone wants me to play the kind of football that sees you hammer the ball long into the stands just to gain territory then that's not going to happen.

“When I was at some other clubs and I didn't feel they had the right intensity either, it gave me a sinking feeling. I never stayed too long at those clubs. I’d end up saying ‘cancel my contract’ as I wanted to go elsewhere and try my luck. I was very headstrong in that respect."

Something else happened during Fotheringham’s time at Meadow Lane: he took under his wing a certain young Celtic loanee by the name of Callum McGregor.

He is especially proud of the player that McGregor has gone on to become after sharing the midfield with him – and current Manchester City and England international Jack Grealish, who was also on loan there at the time – down south.

In fact, he revealed that McGregor's mum still sends his sons money in an envelope at Christmas for his act of kindness during their County days.

“He was an amazing boy,” Fotheringham said. “His mum still sends my kids money in a card every Christmas. That makes me feel embarrassed – I don’t want to take it off her but she’s adamant. It’s basically because I looked after Callum at Notts County.

“I tried to educate him about the mistakes I made when I was younger. I told him ‘you don’t leave Celtic, Celtic leaves you’.

“Sadly I never took that advice earlier in my own career. I was turning up for Scotland under-21s matches and guys like Mark Wilson – who was my age – had played 150 times for Dundee United and I’d only played three games for Celtic. I was captain of that team so I was almost embarrassed that I wasn’t playing first-team football.

“I should’ve kept waiting and been patient like Callum did. At least until Celtic said they no longer wanted me or whatever. Martin O’Neill kept giving me new contracts every year so he must have seen something but I was too impatient. I wanted to go and play.

“I wanted to show everybody how good I was but I should never have left Celtic. It’s my biggest career regret although I will always have that affinity for the club, it’s special.

“But that’s also why I was so proud to see Callum lift the Premiership trophy in his first season as captain. I texted him when he did. No matter where I am I watch him and text him, to push him on. I love him to bits.

“He texted me when I helped keep Hertha in the Bundesliga to say that he was proud of the job I did. He told me he knew straight away that I’d be a success in the coaching arena.”

READ MORE: Roy Keane's silent Celtic stare, rubbing shoulders with Ronaldo and bringing back the thunder - Mark Wilson Big Interview

That particular journey properly started to come to fruition at Fulham. That’s where Fotheringham met Tomas Oral, who was then Magath’s assistant at Craven Cottage.

Despite playing alongside the likes of Scott Parker, Moussa Dembele and Patrick Roberts, Fotheringham more than held his own and led by example. Oral struck up an instant rapport with him and recognised that he possessed the leadership qualities of a future coach.

So much so, in fact, that the German named him as his assistant when he went to take charge at Karlsuher and then Ingolstadt.

That was six years ago now. Since then Fotheringham has been on a German journey – via a short stay at Cowdenbeath – which he says will culminate in him being a Bundesliga head coach in his own right.

Earlier this season, Magath came calling for help in bailing Hertha out of a seemingly hopeless situation in the top flight. Having previously helped guide Ingolstadt to promotion, Fotheringham didn't hesitate or shirk the new challenge. They duly achieved their objective.

Fotheringham even got a taste of that ultimate aim of his when he managed the side to a crucial 3-0 victory against Hoffenheim when Magath contracted Covid-19.

It was a victory that even drew praise from former Real Madrid and Germany international midfielder Sami Khedira.

“Mark Fotheringham is Felix Magath's clever chess piece,” World Cup-winner Khedira said at the time. “I have rarely met someone who can bring people with him the way he can.”

High praise indeed – but unsurprising. Fotheringham has clearly, like ex-Celtic midfielder and Champions League winner Paul Lambert before him, inherited a very German mentality. Big names don’t faze him.

"It doesn't matter what level you put me in at I think I can hold my own,” he said. “Whenever you are in the company of the likes of Tomas Oral, Michael Henke, Jupp Heynckes, Ottmar Hitzfeld or Felix Magath – you just know you are going to win. It's incredible but you do. These guys think I am a bit fucking crazy as I am not frightened of, nor do I fear, big names or big players.

"In Ingolstadt, when I first met Michael Henke as an assistant, I told him that was not how I wanted the training and he was like ‘what do you mean?’

"I told him that this was not how I wanted to do it and that we had bigger distances in the passing movements. Michael didn't bother at all – he liked and appreciated that I spoke my mind.

"I am just absolutely confident in my work. I believe in the way I can structure teams. Felix told me that it was unusual in his career for a coach to give a young man sole responsibility but he told me I was the kind of guy who could not be held back. He wanted me to go and do the business.”

As for his own philosophy? It’s always about accentuating the positives. He has no time for negativity when it comes to footballers and, as a confident lad, does not necessarily believe that you have to have been a top player to become a top coach.

He added: “Some people think 'Oh, it's Fotheringham, he was a young player who never quite made it at Celtic' but I am going into clubs in Germany where I do not know anybody and I am making an impact in terms of coaching. I have had success at every club I've coached here.

"What people need to also understand is that you don't need to be a top player like Paul Lambert in order to be a successful coach. And I wouldn’t say I want to be a manager, I want to be a head coach. I want to work alongside a sporting director in the same way as the coaches at the top Bundesliga clubs work.

“I don't want to manage players, I want to coach players. I want to be on the training pitch, I want to take part in every exercise at every training session, I want to engage with them, live it and breathe it with them and be in their faces when they are not doing it right. I want to go to give players the feeling that they are the best in the world when they do things correctly.

Fotheringham coaching FC Ingolstadt

"I always focus on the positives. I never look at the negatives. If people say 'he is too small, he can't jump' then I say 'he can pass the fuck out of any midfield in Europe, focus on that'.

“If people say a player is too slow, I’ll say ‘well he doesn’t have to be quick, he functions in the 30-by-30 quadrant and dictates the whole game’. It’s the way I function as a coach.”

Working with such coaching freedom at Hertha has brought him into conflict with Magath –albeit in a good way – while the high standards Burns impressed upon him at an early age with Celtic continue to serve him well in Germany too.

“My relationship with Felix is top notch,” said Fotheringham. “He is a fantastic man and he has put so much belief into me but sometimes in training he will say ‘remember I'm your manager, not the other way around’.

“I’ve had arguments with him because I think he looked at me as someone who had big balls as I was telling him how the football should go sometimes.

“But I said to him that I know he is a six-time German champion and a European Cup winner but I’m not some sort of Mickey Mouse guy and that, from the age of 10, I grew up at a club that had 60,000 supporters inside the stadium every other week where it was drummed into us to win – in training, in games and in style.

“That was my whole background, development, mentality and education. I told Felix that Celtic did not just educate me to be a player, they educated me to be a person too.

"Tommy was that man. He made sure I was clean-shaven every day coming into training, that we weren’t wearing jeans to training. It was an education, all about respect and how you were a Celtic player on and off the field. He was teaching us everything that was good about the club.

“But I know Felix is the boss. It is a strange situation for him as he has given me full control at times because he thinks I am not a person who can be constrained. Fredi Bobic, too, is one of the best sporting directors in world football. I’m lucky to have them.”

In short, Fotheringham is forging a formidable reputation as well as gaining respect in one of the best leagues in Europe.

It is, then, small wonder that he feels ready to branch out and become a head coach in his own right. Even that step will be taken as a representative of Celtic – and of Burns.

“Tommy used to always say to me as a kid that I had a presence and that I had to use it,” he said. “I was a captain at Celtic and he told me I had to keep showing that presence as not many people have that quality in their DNA.

“I love that responsibility. I love the fact that I am the guy that's controlling the sessions, controlling the timings, controlling the information we give them in team meetings, how we train, their emotions and knowing if they are eating and sleeping well. I love that side of the game. I also love getting close to players and telling them that we are going to do it together.

“The feeling that I have got is that I am now ready to be a head coach in my own right. I want to become one of the top coaches in Germany, to keep developing.

“For me now it is all about working alongside the elite managers and coaches. I feel that I’m on a level with these guys now – it’s a good feeling. I met Jurgen Klinsmann in the summer and we had a great chat. When you get that amount of respect then you know you are doing something right.”

Burns, Khedira and Magath can't all be wrong. Fotheringham has a presence all right.

And while he hails from the country that gave the world Irn-Bru, he should really be sponsored by Coca-Cola; he eats, sleeps and breathes football. Perhaps more importantly, though, Fotheringham is the real thing.