"I love amateur football"

Florian Niederlechner only knows SV Heimstetten as an opponent, but really well. He played in the Sportpark Landesliga with Falke Markt Schwaben and Bayernliga with FC Ismaning. And now he came as a star with Bundesliga club Augsburg and showed with his mischievous smile that he is still the same guy.

Heimstetten - Last season Florian Niederlechner was number six on the Bundesliga scorers list with a whopping 13 goals and 113 top division games with 30 goals have been recorded for the Bundesliga professional (Mainz, Freiburg and now Augsburg).

Niederlechner is established in the upper house and still says modestly with a view to the new season, "that I just want to stay healthy and perform well". Once as a young player at FC Ismning, he learned from Mijo Stijepic's side and always had fixed goal numbers in mind. Now, as a Bundesliga professional, he smiles away at the objective: "Now there's no point just hitting out a number."

For the striker from Hohenlinden, Heimstetten was a bit of a return “back to the roots”. After all, the young Niederlechner faced Heimstetten coach Christoph Schmitt as an older leading player. “He deserved it,” says Christoph Schmitt, who, like many, is very happy about Niederlechner's career.

"I love amateur football," says number seven of FC Augsburg and the words are easy to believe. Niederlechner never forgot his roots and he never moved away from the past. After all, he was once there as a simple fan of SV Hohenlinden when they played a relegation game at FC Unterföhring II. This is Florian Niederlechner. After the game in Heimstetten, he said “that a test match against FC Ismaning would be really nice”.

A lot has happened there in the Bayern league squad and actually he only knows coach Mijo Stijepic, who, as a striker, was once something like Niederlechner's athletic foster father. The Augsburg striker then indicated "that maybe I will speak to Stefan Reuter". The athletic man behind FC Augsburg will also be looking for good test opponents in the future.

At SV Heimstetten, the Bundesliga team is always welcome again and Ismaning would also pick up the phone. nb