[2] Because of his immediate success at the club and his enigmatic and, oftentimes, energetic personality, Streich has been called a "cult figure",[3] a "firebrand",[4] and a "football philosopher".

After a season with SCF in which he made 22 appearances and scored 2 goals, Streich left the club and went to the second-division team FC 08 Homburg, with which he obtained the runner-up position and promotion into the top national league in 1989.

[4] After Robin Dutt was named manager of the Freiburg's first team in the summer of 2007, Streich served as a co-trainer, attending mainly to the youth squad.

Under his direction, many youth players made the leap to the pros including: Dennis Aogo, Jonathan Pitroipa, Daniel Schwaab, Eke Uzoma, Ömer Toprak, and Oliver Baumann.

Following a poor first half of the Bundesliga season which saw Freiburg in the relegation zone,[7] Streich became head coach on 29 December 2011 after Marcus Sorg was sacked.

[8] Following the winter break, Freiburg played its first Bundesliga match under Christian Streich against fellow relegation battlers FC Augsburg.

[12] Despite being viewed as a club that would certainly be relegated before Streich took over, following an unbeaten streak of 9 matches, Freiburg secured their place in the Bundesliga for the upcoming season on matchday 32 with a 0–0 draw against Hannover 96.

The fifth-place finish secured a position in the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League, an accomplishment that the club had not achieved since the 2001–02 edition of the tournament.

[17][18] During the 2012–13 season, Freiburg also advanced to the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal[19] for the first time in the club's history but lost to local rivals VFB Stuttgart 1–2 and missed the chance to play FC Bayern Munich in the final.

The third season with Streich as coach started out very unsuccessful with Freiburg remaining 16th in the Bundesliga and were eliminated in the group stage of the Europa League[22] after finishing in third place.

SC Freiburg was eliminated in round 3 of the 2013–14 DFB-Pokal by Bayer Leverkusen,[22] however finished the Bundesliga season as 14th and therefore remaining in the league.