Alexander Nouri is talking about motivation, culture and creating a healthy team environment. "I think the same things drive people," he says. "To work in an environment where you are appreciated, where you are valuable, where you are a partner."

"I really focus on creating a culture in the organisation, where the people like to come to work, without much bad feeling or pressure. I said, 'Hey, we are all responsible for creating this atmosphere. We make the framework, we give the rules, we make the structure, but at the end, we define the principles, how we work together, and we need to bring it to life every day'."

Nouri, though, is not talking about a football team. The former manager of Werder Bremen, Hertha Berlin and Ingolstadt — once assistant to Jurgen Klinsmann at Hertha and, briefly, to Gregg Berhalter with the U.S. men's national team — has turned his back on football. These days, he runs three McDonald's restaurants.

A life in football, left behind

Nouri's career in the game was substantial. He spent 13 years as a player, mostly in the German lower leagues with a brief spell at the Seattle Sounders, before moving into coaching. His final job in football came with Kavala in Greece, which he left in 2022. In the years since, he has stepped away from the game entirely — and, he insists, he is happier for it.

It is not always easy to believe him. This was a man who used to say that, given the highs coaching can bring — particularly when he took over Bremen in 2016 and led them from a relegation battle to the brink of European qualification — you "can't find that kind of emotion in an office job". He obfuscates slightly when asked whether a plum Bundesliga offer tomorrow would tempt him back. But he is adamant he has no regrets. He dreamed of managing in the Bundesliga, and he did it. He describes himself as "very fulfilled".

Lessons from Klinsmann and Berhalter

Nouri speaks warmly about how much of what he learned in football — and who he learned it from — remains useful in his new life.

"I was lucky to experience all of these great things, like working alongside Jurgen Klinsmann. Gregg Berhalter is a good friend of mine; he taught me lessons that continue to shape my leadership today," he says.

"I learned a lot from these guys. I learned from Jurgen to have your confidence and your point of view, but always challenge it with different angles or perspectives, and then good things come together if you have different perspectives and, at the end, make a decision."

"The 'growth mindset', I learned from Jurgen and from Gregg. They always brought external expertise into the organisations to challenge their own processes and everything, and to experience that alongside those personalities was learning for me. And that helps me now in my job right now as well."

The pressure he doesn't miss

It is much easier to believe Nouri when he talks about what he has left behind: the emotional whiplash of life as a high-profile coach, exhilarating when things go well and desperate when they don't.

An extreme example is one of his classmates from his 2016 coaching badges course: Julian Nagelsmann. Leading Germany at the recent World Cup was a colossal honour, but Nagelsmann didn't look like he enjoyed a second of it — stressed by an underperforming team, the weight of history, and figures including Jurgen Klopp, who would turn out to be his successor, undermining him from the sidelines, unintentionally or otherwise.

Nouri's own existence over the past six months has been more low-key, but far more stable and level.

"When you do your license as a professional coach, they teach you that when you sign your contract with a team, you're also signing your dismissal notice," he says. "I'm not missing this pressure."

"I had a very great phase with Werder Bremen where 11 games in a row, we didn't lose. I think we won nine out of 11 and two draws, something like that." He says "something like that" as if he doesn't know the numbers exactly. He absolutely knows the numbers exactly.

"I think it was one of the historical best second halves of a season ever played with Werder Bremen. You're flying, everything is positive, and whatever you say, everything is great. And then as soon as you lose two or three games, everything is doubted, and everything is wrong."

And then there is a brief crack in his resolve — a remembrance of the glory that punctuates the stress: "On the other hand, when you score in the 95th minute in front of 60,000 at a full home stadium… you'll never get back these feelings."

A family business, built to last

One of the things Nouri relishes most about his new life is that his family can be involved in a way that was impossible in football. His wife Christina helps out with HR; his son Arian has worked a few shifts at one of the restaurants.

"As a coach, I cannot pass that to my kids," he says. "But if I build something as an entrepreneur, maybe I can."

He has not entirely severed his ties with the game: he helps run youth football tournaments connected to his restaurants, and has tapped old friends to promote them. Messages of goodwill from Klinsmann, Torsten Frings and, delightfully for Euro nostalgists everywhere, former Bremen striker Ailton have all appeared recently on the restaurants' social media pages.

That, though, is as far as it goes. Nouri has left the football "bubble", as he calls it, and is looking forward to a long future at McDonald's.

"I'm very fulfilled in myself. I have a clear vision, to be able to work towards this vision with people you love, with your family; that's something very special," he says. "I believe in karma. I really want to be a good employer. I love what I'm doing."