National player Holger Badstuber (here at the EM 2012): It cracked audibly, the cruciate ligament tore - a turnaround in Badstuber's career
Photo:
Vasil Donev/ dpa
A lot of things in Holger Badstuber's career would probably have gone differently if December 1, 2012 hadn't happened.
On this day Badstuber and FC Bayern meet Borussia Dortmund, it is already the league summit, BVB with coach Jürgen Klopp had celebrated the championship twice in a row, Bayern pushed for revenge.
The result of this game, the game ended 1:1, is now remembered only by very few.
But Holger Badstuber will never forget this evening.
In a duel with Mario Götze in the 35th minute, he twists his knee, it cracks audibly, the cruciate ligament is torn - the career that had promised so much up to that point takes a turn that evening.
A turnaround that determined the footballing career of the player afterwards.
Holger Badstuber is 23 years old at this point, he is a regular player in the national team and at FC Bayern, he has played a World Cup and a European Championship, it is difficult to imagine both teams without him.
After December 1, Badstuber gets to know the downside of football life.
One injury after another
It takes him six months to get back on his feet again, he's just fit again when the ligament tears again, from December 2012 to August 2014 he can't play a single football game.
The national team meanwhile becomes world champion without him in Brazil.
The next setbacks hit him in autumn 2014 and spring 2015, when muscles and tendons in his thighs ruptured.
By this point he'd long had the reputation of being unlucky, indeed his career can be told as an injury serial.
Badstuber is still fighting back and was nominated again for the DFB team in 2015 by national coach Joachim Löw.
For a little while it looks like everything might be fine after all.
Then he breaks his ankle in February 2016, and he's out again for months.
You can write it like this: It's a pity.
One has to realize once again what a promising career this has damaged.
At the age of 20, who has only been on a professional contract with Bayern for a few months, the new Munich coach Louis van Gaal entrusts him with the regular position in central defence.
A regular place previously held by the established Brazilian world champion from 1994, Lucio.
Lucio is so outraged that he says goodbye to Bayern.
Van Gaal as promoter
It's one of the moves the Dutch coach is taking to turn things upside down in Munich.
In addition to Badstuber, van Gaal also promotes the young Thomas Müller, he puts Bastian Schweinsteiger in the midfield, a whole new wind is blowing on Säbener Straße, Badstuber and Müller, they stand for a modern football game.
A defender with so much feeling for the ball was rare in Germany back then, with Bayern he was soon allowed to take free-kicks.
This 20-year-old plays fast, elegantly and intelligently.
A feast for the eyes.
A year later, Müller and he, who nobody knew a year earlier, are part of the World Cup squad with which the Löw-Elf plays their way into the hearts of the football world.
It's not the World Cup tournament that Badstuber imagined.
Loew has ordered him to full-back, although the young man feels more comfortable in the middle of defence.
In the second group game against Serbia, his opponent Miloš Krasić repeatedly ran away from him, and Jérôme Boateng will play in his position from now on.
But at the European Championship two years later, Badstuber is back in the starting XI, this time in his beloved position as central defender, he will play all European Championship games up to the semi-final defeat against Italy.
Badstuber still seem to be in the rosy years with the DFB and FC Bayern, then December 1st will come.
Schalke, Stuttgart, Lucerne
After all the injuries, Badstuber couldn't make the turnaround anymore, Bayern lend him to FC Schalke, where he can't assert himself.
At VfB Stuttgart, the next station, he has good and bad times, in the end the bad ones outweigh the bad ones.
Coach Pellegrino Matarazzo transfers him to the second team.
Badstuber has landed in the fourth division.
He makes another attempt at FC Luzern in Switzerland.
After 14 games, his contract will be terminated.
Badstuber is without a club, now he has drawn the conclusion and ended his career with immediate effect.
At the age of 33, 31 international matches and a good 150 league games.
With six German championships, three cup wins.
Despite everything, this career also had many bright moments.
There could have been so many more.
In view of Badstuber's injury history, there has often been talk of tragedy.
Badstuber will know that, despite all the bad luck, this word is not really appropriate – he experienced early on what true tragedy is.
His father Hermann was the great sponsor in Badstuber's youth, he firmly believed in his son's great talent.
Badstuber's father was a coach himself and was a close friend of long-time Bayern assistant Hermann Gerland.
Gerland held little Holger in his arms when he was a little baby.
When father and son sat in the office of Bayern manager Uli Hoeneß in February and signed the professional contract, a dream came true for Hermann Badstuber.
A month later he died of cancer at the age of 53.
He never saw his son play as a professional.
At the end of his career, Badstuber said he was "grateful for everything".
And now he also wants to become a coach: "I want to follow in my father's footsteps." He owes him that.
