Who is the maverick man leading Mainz to the Champions League? – Discovering who Bo Henriksen is by those that knew him | OneFootball

“Out of all the players at the football club, he was the last one I've ever thought would go into management, to be honest.”

There seemed to be a theme here, and Bo Henriksen’s maverick lifestyle, which fans are so accustomed to seeing as he dons a tracksuit of Mainz, was never shy to come out during his time in Kidderminster.

Henriksen joined the Harriers in November 2001 on a trial basis, and made an instant connection with the club’s kit man, Darren Rogers, but not necessarily an endearing one.

“I was asked to go and pick him up from Birmingham airport.

“So I drove to the airport, and I was waiting there for about an hour and nothing happened. Then I had a phone call from the club, Kidderminster saying, ‘oh, he's here. He's just jumped in a taxi.

“That was the sort of, oh, what’ve we got ourselves here? But that was the kind of guy that he was.”

“Everybody loved him”

Henriksen isn’t the first off-the-cuff, eccentric manager to take the hot seat in Mainz’s dugout, following in the footsteps of Jürgen Klopp in that regard.

But Henriksen is his own man with his own story, and his time at Kidderminster coincided with some of the club’s best-ever football pyramid finishes.

Signed by former Liverpool player and fellow Dane Jan Mølby on a permanent contract in February 2002, Henriksen quickly became a fan favourite in Kidderminster.

Fast-forward 25 years, and Henriksen is a fan-favourite in a city 950 kilometres away and has Die Nullfünfer on the verge of their first UEFA Champions League campaign in the club’s history.

“You could not help but like his infectious personality. Everybody loved him.” Rogers said.

Henriksen’s former teammate, Hugh McAuley, who only played with the Danish forward for a small period of time, believed that the appreciation was shown in the dressing room as well as from the stands.

“I could tell he was really well-liked by the fans and the community, and the players really liked him as a person as well, which is the main thing.”

Rogers echoed McAuley’s feelings, “He was very laid back. When he was here, he was like the highest paid player, but there was no animosity or resentment; everybody loved him very quickly.”

Known colloquially as ‘Daz’, former kitman Rogers recalled more memories of the first time most of the squad set eyes upon Henriksen.

“When the players first saw him, he was stood outside the physio rooms in the tunnel having a cigarette, which obviously in Europe might have been the thing, but over here, that certainly wouldn't have happened.

“So already people thought he was a bit of a character, and it was a bit different.

“He played in this reserve game and did well, then the next thing, we'd signed him.”

Showed up when it mattered

Since taking over at Mainz in February 2024, Henriksen has taken charge of 39 league games, winning 68 points. Across the same stretch, only Bayer Leverkusen (91), Bayern Munich (84) and RB Leipzig (70) have picked up more points.

Mainz is a city renowned for its carnival, and with Henriksen, there was always a party, as there is most of the time when he’s a manager, of the aptly nicknamed, Karnevalsverein (Carnical Club) too.

Harriers’ captain at the time was fan-favourite Aide Smith, and Smith said despite Henriksen’s willingness to have a good time, he always turned up when it mattered.

“When we were playing, it was coming to the end of the drinking culture, so there was a little bit of a school that still had a drink and all that sort of stuff, and he was one of them, to be honest.

“I don't want to put him down like that, but he was one of them, but when it came to a Saturday, he was one of the top ones in the running and one of the best at finishing.”

Smith continued, “It never affected him, but when you looked at him, you just thought ‘what?’ He never looks like a footballer because he had his long hair, which all the opposing fans used to love.”

Henriksen fits the stereotypical Scandinavian brand of forwards that we’ve seen hit the Premier League in recent years.

Danish Viking

But Henriksen was somewhat of a Viking-esque trailblazer, with enviable flowing blonde hair and physical prowess, marauding through helpless English defences.

“He had the attitude [of a Viking], especially on the pitch. He had the attitude because, straight away, the opposing fans are up against him, and the centre-halves are thinking, ‘Who's this?’

“He looks like a girl with his long hair and everything. They thought they were in for an easy ride, but he was physically strong and technically, he was unbelievable. So they struggled with him, and that's why he did so well.”

When Henriksen took charge of Mainz in late winter of 2024, the club was 17th, joint-bottom and four points behind FC Köln in the relegation/promotion playoff places.

The Dane used his infectious nature to rejuvenate the club and propelled them to a 13th-placed finish in 2023/24, and that form continued into the 2024/25 season, with the club now fourth in the table.

McAuley spoke highly of Henriksen both as a player and as a person, “When I signed for Kidderminster, he was very welcoming, and he was a pleasant guy.

“He could be quite quiet sometimes and then sort of the life and soul of the party depending on what day you got him really, but when it came to the football, he was always serious, and his performances were, I think the fans enjoyed watching him play. And he was a real success at Kidderminster.”

Rogers also recalled how Henriksen’s personality (and noticeable style) quickly made him talk of the town.

“We all got to know him, you know, as a lot of fun, and he lived in Kidderminster in a little flat, so he'd go out a lot into the town, and everybody got to see him because he had long blonde hair then, so everybody got to see him around.

“Locally, he was a bit of a celebrity; he would speak to everybody, and everybody wanted to speak to him. He'd go out at night into pubs and have a drink and a smoke when it was OK, like on a Saturday.

“He would always go out, and a lot of people got to meet him and a lot of people got to see him.”

Rogers would always look out for the Dane, no matter what he’d been up to the night before.

“He'd come in in the scruffiest clothes. Obviously, he didn't care what people thought of him. But he used to come in, and he'd stink of cigarettes, stink of beer, obviously after a night out.

“We used to train on a Sunday morning because our manager, Jan Mølby, had a disappointing away game once, and after that, he said to the players, ‘That's it, no more days off.’

“So even after winning on a Saturday or whatever, everybody had to be in on Sunday morning, and he would come in after a night out. Dressed like he dressed, smelling of cigarettes, and I would just get his clothes and wash them.

“I would get his clothes, wash them, turn around and hang them back up for him, and I'd have mints in my kit room to give him just to look after him.”

On the pitch, though, Henriksen was anything but scruffy.

Smith gave a nod to what seemed like Henriksen’s innate footballing ability,

“In front of goal he was very calm and composed, but not only that, he could see a pass. I played with a lot of players that came from a higher level, like Mike Marsh, and they can see that pass. It's just in you. You're just born with it. He was a really good player.”

This is something Rogers also acknowledged, “When you watched him play, he was always such a technically gifted player. Finishing seemed like a second nature to him.

I think he scored 20 goals in one season. So he was very good and very talented. He also played in midfield a few times, and I got the feeling that, because of his ability, he could play anywhere.

“He could read the game and had what I call football intelligence. He always had that. He was switched on on the pitch.”

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“Didn't think he would have gone down that road”

Henriksen’s ‘football intelligence’ is another thing he has in common with former-Mainz, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool head coach Klopp, with the latter explaining, “I had fourth-division feet and a first-division head” when speaking to German newspapers back in 2008.

One thing that united the three former-Harriers that we spoke to was their collective dismissive attitude of Henriksen’s future managerial success when they played with him or saw him play.

McAuley said, “When you're playing, I think it's very difficult. You just want to focus on playing, and you play with some lads, and you think, okay, you could see them making that transition in the managerial world or the coaching world.

“No disrespect to Bo, but I didn't think he would have gone down that road, but he has, and I'm made up that he's been a success in Germany.”

Smith showed a similar sentiment but did suggest there were perhaps small things from his time at Kidderminster that pointed to a potential managerial success.

“It was great to have him in the dressing room. Great to have on a night out, too.

“He brings a lot to the dressing room because he's a likeable character. We had such a good dressing room, we'd fight for each other. So I think he's taken that on board, and he's taken that into his management.

“He wasn't shy, though. If at half time we were in the dressing room and someone wasn’t doing what they had been asked to, he'd stand up and call them out. He knew what he was talking about. He was very tactically aware.

“We'd be looking around thinking, ‘has he actually said that?’  So there were little snippets of his future, but I never thought he would do it.”

Rogers didn’t believe that a player of his personality would ever go into management.

“Personality wise, nobody would have picked out that he would be a manager or this successful because he was just one of the lads who was having a good time.

“He was here, he was having a good time, and to be fair, if you could speak to him about his time at Kidderminster, he would probably say that he really enjoyed his time here.”

However, Rogers does acknowledge that his personable skills and attitude on a matchday have probably played a big role in the success he’s experienced at Mainz.

“I would say that his players would do anything for him because he will still be very, very popular. You could not help but like his infectious personality. Everybody loved him.

“That's the only thing that I can think of that he's taken into management, his popularity. I bet you, he treats his players really well, and I should imagine that they all love him and would do anything for him.”

Rogers is still in contact with Henriksen, but the Dane is clearly too focussed on his historic campaign with Mainz to arrange too much VIP treatment for his former club-mates.

“I do message him, and he always messages me back. But then I'll tell him, ‘I want to come over and watch a game’ and then he doesn’t reply so I don't know whether he doesn't want me to go over there!”