So are the clubs. That’s why the team around the team, i.e. the so-called staff, has changed so much in football clubs in recent years. It’s gotten bigger and more specialized. There are now different experts who look after the team in their areas of competence. I know a lot of people think: “Is it really necessary for so many people to walk around? They used to be able to play football like that.” Of course that’s true. But it’s just part of an evolution, a modernization that I can only endorse. Also because it benefits the players.
As head of the professional player department at Schalke 04, I am responsible for the sports medicine and physiotherapy departments. Sport director Peter Knäbel, sport director Rouven Schröder and I, together with the coaching team, attach great importance to the support of the players being as comprehensive and detailed as possible so that the stress that is simply part and parcel of training and competition is managed as best as possible – and if necessary, rehabilitation is optimally implemented. Of course, it is also the player’s responsibility to take care of himself, to take care of his body and to treat it well. But that should be clear to every professional anyway.
“The very last limit shouldn’t be exceeded. Because then you can splash as much as you want, and at some point it just won’t work anymore.”
Gerald Asamoah
Don’t get me wrong, we’re talking about competitive sports, about contact sports. This means that you always have to go beyond (pain) limits. That you have to grit your teeth. That it hurts. That you get something and can’t be replaced directly. That’s how I played myself and I expect the same from the players today. But that’s not the point at all. The point is that the ultimate limit should not be exceeded. Because then you can still want to splash as much fit, then at some point it just won’t work anymore.
In the end it’s actually quite simple: the fans want to see players play. And the players want to play. But that’s only possible if body and mind don’t go on strike – and we haven’t even talked about the mind, the mental strain, the pressure in professional sport. By that I don’t necessarily mean mental illnesses directly, but rather that the mental can also affect the body, for example in the form of injuries. That both are inextricably linked.
But all this is another topic that is so big and important that it actually deserves its own column…