Lutz Pfannenstiel (47) got around in football like no other.
Born in Zwiesel, he played as a professional on all continents, which is why he is considered a "world goalkeeper".
After the end of his playing days, he settled down: eight years at TSG Hoffenheim, followed by two as sports director at Fortuna Düsseldorf.
He has been working in the USA since August 2020.
Pfannenstiel is building the St. Louis City Club, which will join Major League Soccer (MLS) in 2023.
Lutz, your new club won't play properly for another two years.
You'd think you're pushing a calm ball right now.
The workload is great.
We decided not to buy up an existing organization, but to build everything here from scratch and start with a blank sheet of paper.
St. Louis is one of the most interesting jobs in international football.
The goals are great, and so are the possibilities.
Let us share in the plans and in your optimism.
Football is extremely popular here in the corner and traditionally plays a big role through the high schools and universities.
The history goes back to 1875.
And thanks to the MLS franchise system, everything is built on a solid basis.
All criteria have to be met in order to have a chance of being accepted into the league.
The seriousness of the owners plays a major role, and the market, demand and development potential are examined.
Who are the owners?
This is the Taylor family.
She owns the Enterprise car rental, the largest in the world, you know the green company sign from the airports.
The Taylors want to create an association with a social background.
St. Louis has underdeveloped areas with high crime rates.
Football is supposed to help keep young people from getting on the wrong track.
The family is socially committed and - like Dietmar Hopp in Hoffenheim - invests a lot of energy and money in these important projects.
There is no distrust of private investors in America.
It is normal for clubs to be privately owned.
Hostility like Dietmar Hopp experienced in foreign Bundesliga stadiums is unimaginable here against the club owners.
The romantic illusion of a traditional club soaked in sweat does not exist here.
You were brought up in a sports car to present the club.
That was loud and striking.
What was the message?
The American PR machine works a little differently than in Germany.
And I see my job here as an "enterprise", a company in the best sense of the word: Let's roll up our arms, let's get started, let's build!
We want to create something special in peace and quiet.
But we also want to break records - and we have already succeeded.
We started selling season tickets in September.
Our stadium, which will be located in the city center and is currently under construction, will have almost 25,000 seats.
After 14 minutes we had sold 30,000 tickets, after 24 hours it was 50,000. There is brutal enthusiasm.
The motorization can be a bit stronger during the presentation.
What does the city have to offer in professional sports?
The Cardinals in baseball, they are one of the most traditional teams of all time, the blues in ice hockey, in 2019 they won the Stanley Cup.
The Rams' American football team has been back in Los Angeles for several years, so the third spot was not occupied.
People wanted football.
What is your job like?
Build stadiums and training grounds, find my team with trainers, scouts and administration, establish junior bases in the city, set up an entire junior performance center, put together the professional team.
I rarely get bored.
A mammoth task.
Fortunately, I was able to win Bernhard Peters, the former national hockey coach who also worked for the DFB, TSG Hoffenheim and Hamburger SV.
Yes, and he's an absolute luminary.
We don't want to do a copy-and-paste process, but there are parallels to Hoffenheim, you can take on a lot.
Bernhard Peters works for us on a consulting basis and plays an important role in my sports planning.
At the moment a lot is running through Zoom and Teams - but in my last months in Düsseldorf, when Corona was already in the world, it was no different.
You know football all over the world.
Is there anything that surprises you in America?
Indeed, yes, and nobody in Germany has that on their radar: all over the world football is considered a mass and popular sport, affordable for everyone.
That is not the case in America, where football is - not at school, but at the academy or in a club - the sport for the children of the rather rich population.
People with lower incomes cannot afford it.
The “People's Game” is not a popular sport here.
This difference surprised me most. Talents are lost because they do not even get into the structure.
St. Louis City wants to change that too.
The training that we offer in bases in the city will be completely free of charge.
In this way we reach all parts of the population, for example the Bosnian community, which is the largest here outside of Bosnia and football runs in its blood.
Vedad Ibisevic's family, for example, lives in St. Louis.
Minorities and migrant children will be able to find their way into football with us.
Whereby our concept will be a holistic one.
Only three to five percent make it into professional football, we want to offer 95 to 97 percent a plan B for normal life.
How will the offspring be structured?
U7 to U13 in the support points, from U14 the children come to the academy.
We will start playing the U16 and U17 in 2021, in 2022 the U14, U15 and the Development Squad, the second team, will join, and in 2023 the professionals.
Six teams will play under the St. Louis City SC crest.
Start in two years - you won't be signing a player yet?
But starting in November 2022 would be the wrong approach.
We want to use the transfer window in 2022 to have the entire squad available at the beginning of 2023.
As an expansion team, we can also choose players from other clubs.
Do you think that a big international name will refine the team?
Since Lionel Messi said he wanted to play in the US, I've received hundreds of emails telling me to sign him.
When Pep Guardiola was at FC Barcelona, I was doing an internship there for a month, I know Messi.
I think he would be more oriented towards Florida or California.
The Midwest stands for a down-to-earth attitude, work, the coolness of New York, Miami, Los Angeles doesn't fit here.
Like the blues in ice hockey, we want young mentality players.
And a style that expresses speed, dynamism, energy.
Just like the sports car when I was introduced to it, which you mentioned earlier (laughs).
A game that is not about huge amounts of possession.
Fast and toxic in the zones where the game is decided, that should be our DNA.
Interview: Günter Klein