Cult keeper in an interview
©IMAGO
At the turn of the year we look back at some of our interview highlights from 2025. In July we published the article about our conversation with ex-professional Martin Pieckenhagen.
Martin Pieckenhagen is without a doubt one of the cult keepers of the 90s. The 54-year-old played over 200 Bundesliga games for Hamburger SV and Hansa Rostock alone. Transfermarkt spoke to the ex-goalkeeper who was most recently active as a board member at FC Hansa (now managing director at Kickers Offenbach) about earlier times, today’s type debate and his live call in the “double pass”.
The concepts of patience and luck play an important role for Pieckenhagen when he looks back on his active career. Although he signed his first professional contract with 1. FC Union Berlin at the age of 18, it took six more years and two stops before he was able to celebrate his breakthrough at Hansa Rostock.
“As a keeper, you need a certain tolerance for frustration and at the same time the ambition to always want to stick with it. You may have to wait for your chance for years. That’s why you have to have incredible mental strength because you have to go from 0 to 100 in a relatively short time. In general, as a goalkeeper you are always under pressure, you have to be on target for over 90 minutes and you can’t let anything distract you. This is an extremely physical and mental effort,” says Pieckenhagen.
When he moved to Hansa Rostock in the 1996/97 season, it was by no means foreseeable that the cog would develop into an absolute affair of the heart for the Berlin native – even in the far north, Pieckenhagen initially had to show patience. During the 1997/98 season he took over the role of number 1 and did not give up this position for years. For the Bundesliga veteran, memories of that time are now like a journey into another world.
“Many things are unthinkable today. For example, that people smoked in the locker room and that the locker room was furnished in a spartan manner. My place consisted of a bench, which you tend to find in the gym these days, and three hooks for clothes. During my time at Union Berlin, a clothesline was stretched through the locker room and the jerseys were dried there. As a result, the next day it smelled of musty earth and sweat. In the winter, we trained with a colorful soccer ball in 10 or 20 centimeters of fresh snow. I “I then put on padded training pants so that I wouldn’t feel the hard ground. Many people might throw their hands up over their heads, but I thought we had an incredible amount of fun at the time,” Pieckenhagen looks back with a smile.
Over time, the Berlin native not only developed into a crowd favorite, but also an absolute top performer for the Rostock team. “I never played football based on status, but rather because of love and passion. That’s why I never wanted to become a crowd favorite. That has come with time. Three attributes have always been important to me: honesty, authenticity and down-to-earthness. As a professional footballer, you have to be aware of the two sides of the coin. If you are successful, then part of it is to celebrate with the fans. For example, with the legendary victory and relegation in Bochum in 1999. There “A few liters of beer were poured. At the same time, you also have to be aware that when you lose, you’re right next to the fans and understandably you get insults thrown at you. But the emotions are part of it,” says Pieckenhagen.
Pieckenhagen: “In a certain way he was also driven”
There was no moment when he saw himself as a seasoned professional. “In a certain way, I was also a driven person. There was never a moment when I said I was going to rest now. I was always at full speed because I was afraid that my rival would take my place. From today’s perspective, I may have had an exaggerated attitude. I also played when I was sick or injured. When the doctor gave the okay, then I didn’t take it easy, popped myself a painkiller, gritted my teeth and played,” the former professional looks back openly.
When asked whether a good goalkeeper has to have a pinch or a portion of crazy, Pieckenhagen has to smile: “My wife and my friends never recognized me on the pitch. At home I was lovable, on the pitch I was crazy. The man with the arrow in the head. As a goalkeeper you take on a special role that allows no mistakes. You have to be clear in your demeanor, clear in your choice of words. If you play in Dortmund or Schalke, for example, then you can’t get to the man in front of you say: ‘Timo, would you be so kind and could you …’ Then short, clear, hard sentences count. The goalkeeper is a special blow. Dealing with goals and mistakes as a keeper is the most important and fundamental thing, because your mind is always running and is so important to keep your thoughts in the right direction.
The 53-year-old can still clearly remember the most important clean sheet game during his time at Hansa: On September 30, 2000, the Kogge surprisingly won 1-0 at FC Bayern Munich, also thanks to outstanding saves from keeper Pieckenhagen. But it wasn’t just this one-hit wonder, the Rostock team also won 3-2 at home against the German record champions in the second leg.
“These games were an emotional eye-opener for me. After the game we received so many messages saying: Finally we are seen and are not just the little Eastern club. The East-West thinking, the East-West comparisons disappeared for a moment. Little David beat the big Goliath. I had goosebumps when people said to me: ‘This week I’m going to work overjoyed because I’m a proud Hansa fan and you for this moment of happiness “When someone says something like that to you personally, you develop a completely different bond with the club, with the people, with the region,” emphasizes the 53-year-old.
Pickenhagen’s departure from Hansa: “HSV was a completely different world”
The 2000/01 season was the season in which Pieckenhagen outgrew itself and became the focus of many Bundesliga teams. In the end he moved to Hamburger SV. Already in the first few weeks he noticed that the clocks there ticked differently in many ways. “HSV was a completely different world. In Rostock there was comparatively still football romance. At HSV it was all about success, the pressure was immensely greater and so were the expectations. The sense of entitlement was very clear: HSV belongs in the Champions League. The squad was of course also full of today’s HSV legends like Sergej Barbarez, Mehdi Mahdavikia and Tomas Ujfalusi. The media landscape was also completely different. While in Rostock everything was relaxed As the story unfolded, journalists in Hamburg sensed the next story on every corner – even ones that had never happened,” laughs Pieckenhagen.
He played 114 games for the Rothosen and to this day still raves about the special moments he experienced with the fans: “I was able to play in the derby against St. Pauli twice. You noticed from the beginning of the week that the game was not a normal game. There was really pressure on the kettle. Accordingly, after the derby win, we turned night into day and celebrated merrily.” Pieckenhagen was known for his leadership and sense of responsibility, but looking back, he freely admits that there were moments when he would have liked to show weakness – but couldn’t.
“A defining moment was when I tore my cruciate ligament. At first I was sad and in the next moment I was happy. I had built up internal pressure over the years, I felt personally responsible for every defeat. I just functioned, didn’t listen to my body, I just pushed on the gas. Personally, I didn’t admit any phases of weakness. Today I would say I was mentally exhausted. It was only after the injury that I realized that I had run through a few red lights,” says Pieckenhagen. He gives today’s talents and young professionals some advice: “If I told the boys ‘Don’t put pressure on yourself, accept the mistakes, pay attention to your health, no one would listen to me – and I wouldn’t have as a young player either. The questions you have to ask yourself are: Am I prepared to subordinate everything to football and am I prepared to pay the price? Football has an incredible number of bright sides, but also some dark sides. For example, one that doesn’t always work and an intact private life. I am extremely grateful that I have had and still have a wonderful woman by my side over the years who gave me a wonderful daughter.”
Pieckenhagen: Live call in the “double pass” & legendary egg saying
The Berlin native was a goalkeeper who today would be described as a “guy” and who did not mince his words. After a defeat, he once gushed out: “Now we finally have to get off our asses and show our balls.” A saying that quickly gained cult status. The keeper also called the “Doppelpass” live talk on the show when there were critical reports about Hamburger SV. “We were sitting together in the massage room when Jörg Wontorra said that he could clearly see that we were playing against the coach. At first I said very loudly: ‘He’s not playing quite well anymore.’ And the next moment: ‘I’ll call them now.’ Then I told the experts in the studio my opinion and then it was good,” the 53-year-old remembers with a laugh.
Pieckenhagen sees the fact that nowadays many interviews sound the same and can be assigned to any football professional at all as a home-grown problem: “We keep shouting for types. These types still exist in football today, but they know exactly what happens when they open their mouths. Then the next shitstorm is waiting for them within five minutes. Today you are no longer allowed to say anything critical, be it in a football or social context. Unfortunately, it is now smarter to say a lot without saying a lot “But football thrives on emotionality and people who answer straight away.”
Interview: Henrik Stadnischenko