Borussia Mönchengladbach professional Lars Stindl: the calm one

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Borussia captain Lars Stindl

Photo: INA FASSBENDER / AFP

It was a few years ago that Lars Stindl characterized himself as follows: "I'm a calm guy who gets along with people." It was 2012, when Stindl had only just moved to Hannover 96 as a young guy.

A lot has happened since then. In the meantime, Stindl has become a national player, has won the Confederation Cup, is captain at Borussia Mönchengladbach and plays in the Champions League.

But the old self-description shouldn't have changed much over the years.

At the weekend, Stindl completed his 300th Bundesliga game, thus catching up with league veterans such as Uwe Bein, Rüdiger Wenzel and Bernd Gersdorff.

If everything goes well and he remains uninjured, he will still overtake quality class players Peter Nogly, Bulle Roth, both Rummenigge brothers, Frank Neubarth and Friedhelm Funkel in the statistics this season.

If you've played more games than Friedhelm Funkel, you're really part of the Bundesliga inventory.

Professionals with so much routine are described as serene, but Stindl brought this quality with him in his younger years.

Even if his team-mate Oscar Wendt once confirmed that Stindl had "the best inside in the league", his main quality lies elsewhere: in the fact that he exudes calm on the pitch.

Stindl is a head player, just as cool in building up the game as at the penalty spot.

The opposite of a hot spur, that's probably how you imagine a team captain.

Just a calm guy.

Not exactly known as a tempo player

Stindl is now 32 years old, which can be a borderline age for a team that has been prescribed running intensity and speed by the trainer.

There were also some who predicted Stindl that he could become one of the losers under a coach Marco Rose.

The competition on the offensive with Alassane Pléa, Marcus Thuram and Breel Embolo is consistently more athletic, powerful, faster.

That there should still be room for someone who also has his strengths in slowing down the game was at least doubtful.

Especially since Stindl had to end the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 seasons early with serious injuries.

In 2018 he suffered a severe ligament injury against Schalke 04, a year later against his ex-club Hannover 96 he broke his shin.

In both cases, that meant a month-long outage, when Rose started his job, Stindl was out of action.

Can someone like that come back at 30?

After a year and a half under Rose, these doubts are gone.

Due to the multiple loads from the Bundesliga, Cup and Champions League in the Corona year, which is already a multiple burden, squad rotation is also the order of the day in Mönchengladbach, so that all strikers get their chances.

And Stindl makes the most of his experience, especially in the Champions League.

In the two games against Shakhtar Donetsk he was an outstanding leader, two goals and two assists he brought with him from the duel.

In the league, he dragged Borussia in the pre-Corona period with his goals and assists through the phase when his storm colleagues were slack.

The national team is ticked

He ticked off the national team topic after nine international matches, the injury from the Schalke game at the time cost Stindl a possible participation in the World Cup, after which he gradually slipped out of the focus of the national coach.

He's not the first to have this happened to Joachim Löw.

The esteem in the club has not suffered.

"He's someone who goes ahead, important in the cabin, but not only there, a real captain," said Rose about Stindl when asked by SPIEGEL.

Attributes that should be required in the evening at the next edition of the rifle throw memory game against Inter Milan.

The Italian top club, peppered with stars from Belgium's Romelu Lukaku to ex-Dortmund's Achraf Hakimi, is under pressure, has only scored two disappointing points in four games and has to win to be able to progress.

The Gladbachers most likely only need one point for the round of 16 - "only" is, however, also a trivializing word for the outstanding opponents Inter and Real Madrid.

The Gladbachers have so far performed above expectations, but Borussia has not yet reached their goal.

And what it's like to be deprived of success shortly before the end has been experienced by the team often enough this season when they gave away wins through late goals.

If Borussia manage to progress, they would be in the knockout round of the most important European Cup for the first time in an impressive 43 years.

The game against Inter will also take place again on December 1st, the date on which, in 1971, perhaps the largest European Cup game in Gladbach's history against Inter Milan ended 7-1 with a thrown Coke can.

A game with meaning, more than any European Cup evening in and for Mönchengladbach.

All the more, the motto before such an important game is all the more: Keep calm.

The specialist is ready.

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