Football retiree Ottmar Hitzfeld: "Defeats have finished me"

one day : Mr. Hitzfeld, at FC Bayern Munich is a coaching vacant. Would that be something for you?

Hitzfeld : I do not want to comment on Bavaria at the moment.

one day: Is your passion for football bigger or smaller since you're no longer a coach?

Hitzfeld: Bigger. With a pleasant difference: In the past, football meant above all work, stress, pressure and the daily feeling of having to fight for one's own existence. Now I can enjoy the sport in the carefree way I was last allowed to do as a child. I think it's great to be a TV expert analyzing games or preparing for an interview without being responsible for any success. And I love to watch live football. Whether at the TV, in the stadium or as recently at my home club TuS Stetten in the county league, where everything started in 1960.

one day: What did you think of during the visit there?

Hitzfeld: How much I used to suffer as a child when the first team lost a game. For two days I was heartbroken. How do you explain this to a person who does not feel that way? Impossible. I have always felt this to be a privilege: this passion, which includes suffering. It makes everything so much more exciting.

one day: When did you fall in love with football?

Hitzfeld: I was probably nine years old. My father took me to a friendly match between FC Basel and Hamburger SV with Uwe Seeler and Charly Dörfel. I can still remember the moment when I climbed the stairs to the bleachers: an evening game, the floodlights were on, the lawn was as green as I'd ever seen it.

One day: They made it into the Olympic squad in 1972, were for FC Basel Swiss top scorer and scored 38 goals for VfB Stuttgart. What kind of player were you?

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Hitzfeld: No Gerd Müller, no Horst Hrubesch, a rather average talented, but very fast striker, who could run the 100 meters in 11.7 seconds. As a former athlete, I was generally strong in running, dribbling well and had good nerves in front of goal.

one day: In 1983 you finished your professional career. What do you think about your life as a player today?

Hitzfeld: It was wonderful, the pressure comparatively low, the leisure time sufficient. As a coach, my professional life was five times more intense. Actually, I wanted to work as a teacher and had finished my studies ten years earlier. But then the State Education Office asked me for a re-examination because my studies were so long ago. That was too stupid for me. So I became a football coach.

one day: For eight years you worked for SC Zug, FC Aarau, Grasshoppers Zurich. How did you crack your teeth as a rookie?

Hitzfeld: The most important thing, the foundation for me has always been a good interpersonal relationship with the team. I wanted to make it clear to my players that I was their partner, not their boss, and that we could only succeed if we pulled together. That requires trust. For hours, I thought about what words to choose to motivate my players or discuss mistakes. If you win, it's easy. It only gets exciting when things are not going so well. Communication is everything in this job.

one day: There are practically no stories about you getting lost. How were you capable of so much self-restraint?

Hitzfeld: I am a convinced optimist and I wanted to live this positive thinking actively. In addition, football is a very simple game if you stick to the rules - the players and the coach. One of these rules says that the coach has to be a role model. If he loses control, the team loses it as well. You can not succeed with that.

One day: Constantly mimicking the optimist can be very exhausting.

Hitzfeld: Especially when the success is missing. When I came to Dortmund in 1991, not much was expected of us, BVB had reached only 10th place in the preseason. So I could only win. In the end, we were surprisingly runner-up. In successful years, the constant adrenaline rushes ensure that the burden is not noticed. But if the team is fighting the descent and the coach is fighting for his job, while at the same time having confidence every week, it will cost an incredible amount of energy.

one day: 1997 at BVB and 2004 at Bayern - twice should have been close to a burnout.

Hitzfeld: Maybe I was not only close to it, but was in the middle of it. In any case, both times the battery was completely empty, all my energy was used up. Despite the very successful years. With every win and every title, expectations rose - especially to myself. I hated to lose, defeats got me done. I simply could not switch off, was busy 24 hours a day with my team and the next game. Even in the international breaks that you so longed for as a coach, I did not manage to clear my head.

one day: How has this affected?

Hitzfeld: I had many sleepless nights where the pressure seemed almost tangible. Then I tried to read a book - and thought after two pages but only to my team. I got back pain, my lumbar muscles hardened, body and mind were totally tense.

one day: What did you do about it?

Hitzfeld: I tried autogenic training, yoga and breathing exercises, which helped. Sometimes I stretched out on the floor in front of my bed and tried to somehow dissolve this tension. But at some point the end of the flagpole was reached. In 1997, I left the coaching post at my own request, 2004, I was no longer in a position and almost grateful for the fact that Bayern dissolved my contract prematurely. After the Champions League victory in 1997, Real Madrid wanted to sign me on as a coach and then President Lorenzo Sanz will meet me in Dusseldorf. For three nights, I thought and then said.

one day: Because you did not want to do the stress?

Hitzfeld: Because I did not speak Spanish. Had I reasoned the language, I would have gone to Madrid. So I thought: Until you speak Spanish, they have already released you anyway.

one day: In all successes, your name is synonymous with one of the most spectacular defeats in football history. How did you process the 102-second defeat of Bayern in the 1999 Champions League final?

Hitzfeld: The shock was also deep for me, especially since I knew after the final whistle that I would be pilloried for the late substitutions of Lothar Matthäus and Mario Basler. But first, as an athlete you have to deal with defeats, and secondly, I knew that as a coach I was challenged right now, at the worst hour. When the players were sitting in the cabin, completely exhausted, I said, "Men, right now will see if we're really a team!" Only at home did I allow myself the luxury of thinking about myself. That night, I woke up sweaty and thought I had a nightmare. I only relived the last minutes of Barcelona in my sleep.

one day: From the budget Bayern captain Thomas Helmer there is a photo, as he shows you after the final defeat against Manchester the Stinky finger, because you had not come on him. What went wrong with Helmer?

Hitzfeld: Thomas was my candidate for the Libero-Posten together with Lothar Matthäus before the season. When I decided on Lothar, I already knew that there would be trouble. I tried to explain to Thomas my action, but I could not get through to him. If a player closes up, you have to accept that as a trainer so you do not spend all your energy. At some point the measure was full, because I could not and did not want to deal with him anymore. The gesture after the match in Barcelona was extremely disrespectful and logically meant the end in Munich for Thomas.

One day: In 2008 you took over the Swiss national team, your hometown Lörrach is only five kilometers from the border triangle. Did not you feel ready for retirement yet?

Video: Hitzfeld's last big gig in 2014

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DPA

Hitzfeld: I always felt very connected to Switzerland, coaching the "Nati" seemed like an ideal transition to retirement age. After a few weeks I almost receded, because the local press completely exaggerated me as "Messiah" and disturbed me this enormous expectation. In the end I stayed in office for six years and experienced two world championships, a very exhausting but rewarding experience. When my selection in the World Cup Round of 16 in 2014 after extra time against Argentina flew out of the tournament, I knew that my career was finally over.

one day: why?

Hitzfeld: Because I was already 65 years old and always determined to stop in time. I never wanted to be one of those trainers who worked until they dropped dead off the bench.