10th place and the “old man”: 10th place in 2018/19 was seen as a real success for Friedhelm Funkel’s team. “Fortuna were one of the biggest surprises,” said former player Mike Rietpietsch. “That was only possible because calm had finally returned to the club.” Though even that calm did not last long: in the winter break chief executive Robert Schäfer announced that Fortuna and Funkel would part ways at the end of the season because they could not agree on contract length. After fan protests, the supervisory board overruled Schäfer, and by season’s end Schäfer was gone while Funkel was still there – as of December 2019.