At just 20 years old, Derry Scherhant is still a comparatively young man, and yet he was overcome by nostalgic feelings early on Sunday evening. On what was probably his best day as a footballer so far, the dark times came back to him. Times that are not so long ago for him.
In the U17s, the current professional from Hertha BSC still played for Viktoria 89. Or rather: he didn’t play most of the time. “I sat on the bench most of the time back then,” he said after Hertha’s liberating 4-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Scherhant had made a not inconsiderable contribution to this success. In added time, right in the middle of the only somewhat more compelling phase for the otherwise largely harmless Gladbachers, he scored the decisive 3-1 for the Berlin Bundesliga team.
At the edge of the penalty area, Scherhant looped over his opponent Florian Neuhaus, then put the ball in the right position with two contacts before turning and hitting through the legs of defender Ko Itakura into the far corner. “I just want to keep at it, try to shoot from every position.” Scherhant had planned to do that before the game.
It was the first Bundesliga goal ever for the native of Berlin. Just like for the native of Berlin Marton Dardai, who scored shortly after the break to make it 2-1 after the native of Berlin Jessic Ngankam had equalized the Gladbach lead with the 1-1.
“It feels incredible. I’m still speechless,” Scherhant said of his first goal. “It’s exactly the moment you dream of your whole life: scoring a goal for Hertha in the Olympic Stadium. I still can’t believe it. I’m very happy.” So happy that he even cried later in the dressing room.
This is exactly the moment you dream of your whole life: scoring a goal for Hertha in the Olympic Stadium.
Derry Scherhant after his first Bundesliga goal
The home game in the Olympic Stadium was an extremely emotional experience, not only for Scherhant, but for the entire team, the entire club and its fans, a multiple emotional spectacle with joy, relief, but also a bit of pride.
This was mainly due to the scorers of the first three Berlin goals, all of which came from their own offspring. That was “also outstanding,” said Marco Richter. Especially after President Kay Bernstein had sent the club on the Hertha path almost two weeks ago after the dismissal of the previous managing director Fredi Bobic. To rely more on players from the youth academy is now the declared aim of the club.
The game against Gladbach showed that this path does not have to lead directly to ruin. Coach Sandro Schwarz was asked on Sunday whether the youngsters had dealt with the complicated situation in a more inexperienced manner after the four defeats in the first four games. Schwarz didn’t want to confirm that. What was obvious, however, was that the youngsters played with a lot of heart and guts, because Hertha is not just any employer for them.
Hertha wants to rely on their own talent again
This was exemplified by Dardai’s goal to make it 2-1, a powerful shot from more than 25 meters that required a maximum of heart and guts. “It was so unreal, somehow,” said the central defender, who last scored a competitive goal for Hertha in December 2018, in a U-17 game against Holstein Kiel. The goal against Gladbach “was the bonus point on his birthday,” said Sandro Schwarz. Marton Dardai turned 21 on Sunday.
In the past few days, Hertha’s coach had been asked more and more often about Dardai and his chances of playing. Until Sunday, the central defender had hardly played a role in Schwarz. Five and a half months had passed since his last and so far only starting eleven appearance this season, Dardai had not played a second this year and was not even in the squad for the home game against Wolfsburg. So why the comeback now? Schwarz said “that Marton deserved it”.
Dardai started, Ngankam made his first starting XI of the season and Scherhant was allowed on as the game reached its decisive phase. Before he came on, Schwarz told him that today was a good day for his first Bundesliga goal. He later certified Scherhant to be “a player willing to learn”, “a super sincere, clear boy”.
Among the pupils from Hertha’s academy who caused a stir on Sunday, Scherhant is a special case because he only joined the club in the A youth. On the other hand, his career, at least up to this point, is unfortunately also typical. Players like him are often overlooked at youth level.
Scherhant was born in November. Due to the deadline rule, this means that in his youth he often had to deal with players who were almost a year older than him. If you’re a teenager and are a little thinner than your peers, you’ll easily fall through the cracks and, like Viktoria’s Scherhant, spend the games in the U17s on the bench rather than on the pitch.
Even in youth soccer, physicality and athleticism are considered more important than soccer potential. The fact that Derry Scherhant still made it into the Bundesliga says a lot: both about his playing quality and his mentality.
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