F365 interview: Lennard Maloney dreaming of Arsenal and the World Cup
As Heidenheim’s United States international midfielder Lennard Maloney speaks to Football365, the theme that underpins his philosophy on football – on life, even – quickly becomes apparent.
It’s about work.
“I’m the type of person who does the work that nobody really wants to do,” the Berlin-born 24-year-old begins, describing his bustling playing style.
“I think it comes from the time I was at Union Berlin. I was only a practice player because I still had school on the side. That’s where all the do-it-yourself work came from.”
Maloney, a centre-back at the time, didn’t quite make the grade with his hometown club. He left as a free agent in the summer of 2020, with just one senior appearance under his belt. Then it was on to Borussia Dortmund’s reserves, from where he progressed to play two Bundesliga games for the first team, before again his contract lapsed and he left for free, this time signing for second-tier minnows Heidenheim.
“I don’t think it was a step back,” Maloney says. “If you look at the whole picture of the way I evolved from Union Berlin and then Dortmund and then Heidenheim, it was always a step forward. Every transfer I had was an opportunity.”
On to Heidenheim and – under the tutelage of manager Frank Schmidt, who has been in charge of the club from the central German state of Baden-Württemberg since 2007 – into midfield.
“It was a little bit strange, to be honest,” Maloney explains of his positional shift upon signing for Heidenheim in 2022. “I’d played that position before, but only at youth level. Playing it at the professional level was a little bit different because you have a few more tasks to do. But you learn while doing the job. I’m glad the coach put me in the position to get even better and to play not only one position but two or three.
“His work ethic is incredible,” he says of Schmidt. “Hands down, I’ve never seen anybody who wants to work that badly. Every week, he starts new – new game, new week, new opportunity. That’s something that makes him a great coach. He’s been in that position so long because he just wants it so bad every week. That’s what makes him the coach that he is.”
If work makes the player and work makes the coach, then work made for promotion from the 2.Bundesliga in the 2022/23 season. On the final day of the campaign, Heidenheim needed to win to be certain of a place in the top flight, locked in the tightest of battles with Darmstadt and Hamburg for the two automatic promotion places.
They travelled to relegation-fighting Jahn Regensburg and, thanks to a 99th-minute Tim Kleindienst goal, completed a comeback from 2-0 down to win 3-2, finishing top of the table on goal difference. But Maloney, taken off injured, admits to having seen little on the dramatic denouement.
“To be honest, I didn’t really catch much of the game,” he says. “I got hit on the head, so I was just chilling on the sideline. Towards the end, you realised what was happening. I was sitting there, but emotionally I was already on a different level.
“The celebrations were crazy. The whole town was on fire. Everybody here was happy and in each other’s arms. It was a great night and a great couple of days for the club. It was one big party.”
Top-flight survival would require an even greater grind. Hailing from a city of just 50,000 inhabitants – so about the size of Yeovil – and with a stadium boasting a modest capacity of 15,000, Heidenheim’s budget and wage bill ranked among the lower reaches of the second tier. Up against the behemoths of the Bundesliga, they were dwarfed.
“We knew where we came from,” Maloney says. “We knew the first season was going to be a tough one, just like the one we are having now. Most of the time you say the second one is even harder. You’re a small club and you know you don’t have the finances and the facilities of the big clubs. You know you’ve got to use what you have and use every single day to work and bring it on the pitch at the weekend. You’ve got to have that work ethic every single day.”
With all that work, Heidenheim earned the right to play. They not only survived in the Bundesliga last season but thrived, finishing eighth and earning a place in the UEFA Conference League. Their campaign highlight was a 3-2 victory over Bayern Munich. But Maloney points to a different fixture as being his personal standout moment.
“For me, Union Berlin was the most emotional game, just because I know almost everybody still at the club,” he says. “And things there didn’t work out quite the way I wanted them to. So you take a couple of steps sidewards and back up, then you play against them. It was a great way of saying, ‘Look, maybe I didn’t make it here, but now I’m here and playing against you guys.’ That was a great moment.”
It was a moment equalled only by his first call-up for the United States, for whom he qualifies via his American father. It arrived in October last year ahead of a couple of friendlies, against Ghana and, ironically, Germany, whom he’d represented at youth level. He remained an unused substitute against the Germans but came off the bench to earn the first of two caps to date in a 4-0 win over Ghana.
“I was on my way home back then,” Maloney remembers of then-manager Gregg Berhalter’s initial call. “It was a five-hour drive and I cried for five hours. I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t believe I’d just had that call. It was a great moment.
“I was in a lucky position to be able to choose between both sides [Germany and the USA]. It was a heart decision and my heart said I wanted to play for the US. I was happy and lucky it worked out that way.”
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Having made his senior international debut, Maloney was hopeful of being selected for the Copa America on home soil earlier this summer. But this time when Berhalter called, it was to deliver bad news. Maloney’s response was typical: back to work.
“Of course, I was very disappointed,” he says. “I talked with the coach. He had made his decision and I said to him, ‘OK, I accept that,’ but I was still heartbroken. I thought I could make the squad. At the end of the day, it’s the coach’s decision. If it’s his opinion that he has the roster that’s best for that cup, then I’m all for it. But he can expect that he’s got somebody here who will work even harder to be in the next one.”
And the hard labour doesn’t stop at club level. Heidenheim have started the 2024/25 Bundesliga seasons brightly, winning their first two fixtures without conceded before being edged out by Dortmund in a 4-2 thriller at Signal Iduna Park.
“We’re just continuing doing the work we did since day one in the first division,” Maloney says. “We know we’re not the big club that comes into the stadium when we play our opponents. But I think that’s also our strength. If we keep up that work and our mentality and that family thing we have here, I think we can be a very tough opponent for everybody.
“That’s our goal, to always be a little happiness killer for the teams we play against.”
And as things stand, Maloney could be taking his joy-extermination skills somewhere else next season. In the final year of his contract with Heidenheim, he’s set to enter free agency for a third time at the end of the current campaign. A lifelong Arsenal fan, if Mikel Arteta needs a hard-grafting happiness killer, there’s a willing candidate in Maloney.
“That’s a big dream,” he says. “Right now, I’m in Heidenheim and I’m happy here. But if you could put that Gunner badge on me one time, I won’t put it down.”
There is an ambition even bigger than a move to Arsenal that Maloney harbours, too. With the United States set to co-host the 2026 World Cup, the midfielder is determined be there. It’s an idea he doesn’t allow himself to ponder for too long, though. After all, daydreams are the enemy of work.
“It’s still one and a half years away,” he says. ‘I’m more like, you’ve got to look week to week. Of course, you think about it because it’s the biggest thing on earth, to play in the World Cup for your country – especially in your country. But until then there’s still a lot of time. You can still improve yourself a lot. Ask me again in a year and a half.”
There’s plenty Maloney still wants to achieve between now and the summer of 2026. Lots of work still to do.
