Ex-professional Neven Subotic no longer wants to have much to do with the football business. With his foundation he is committed to access to clean drinking water in Africa. A conversation about his childhood in the Black Forest, coach Jürgen Klopp and his fight for a fairer world.
SWR Sport: The Bundesliga starts its new season next weekend. Do you know who your ex-clubs Dortmund and Mainz have to play against?
Neven Subotic: (laughs) Unfortunately not. I wouldn’t even know that for a million euros. It’s not one of my hobbies, knowing who’s playing who and when.
Are you still interested in current Bundesliga events?
The football business is irrelevant to me. I’m glad to get away from it. I’m not interested in who is transferred where or what the market volume is. If I ever find access to football again, it will be because it is relevant to society. If I can help football do more for society, then that would be a role where I say: I’m willing to invest my sweat.
But you yourself benefited from football for many years, you loved this game. Has this love suddenly disappeared after your career ended?
There are some things I will always love about football. Football is fair, the rules are the same for both teams and the competition itself has always driven me. But now, in my working environment at the foundation, I have a competition that isn’t about the next win, it’s about human lives. This work is vital and highly complex. I like to invest a lot of time and passion. In the end, it also fulfills a higher purpose than just taking three points. Being the best I can be continues to be what drives me.
Childhood in the Black Forest
You were six months old when your parents came to the Black Forest with you and your sister from the former Yugoslavia. What memories do you have of your childhood in Schömberg?
Schömberg was wonderful for me. A small community near Pforzheim. The most important thing was that there was a school for everyone in the village. Everyone was the same, everyone was there. After school we usually met at the soccer field. I think I belong to the last generation that grew up without a computer. We kids really had a feeling for each other.
As a family from abroad, did you have contact with the locals?
There were few people who made it clear to us: We really appreciate and respect you. They sometimes did this through small actions: the Egle family invited us to their place for coffee and cake every Sunday. We met as equals. That was very valuable. And then there was Mrs. Stumpf. She made it possible for us to live in an apartment. Before that we had lived on the top floor of the clubhouse – without a bathroom. Mrs. Stumpf invited us to live with her. She cleared her bedroom for my parents and moved to the couch. Through them we were able to apply for a toleration and really arrive in Germany.
Nevertheless, you had to leave Germany at the age of ten. The whole family moved to the USA. Once again you were torn out of a familiar environment and had to start over in a foreign culture.
I feel it is a great injustice that has happened to us. I was in fourth grade at the time and wanted to go to high school. My parents were very hardworking. They all did dirty jobs that nobody wanted to do and that weren’t well paid either. We hadn’t done anything wrong. But in February 1999 a letter came. It said our tolerance status had expired. Not only did we have to leave the country, but all of our schoolmates, friends and loved ones.
Klopp can bring out the best in people
Salt Lake City was also a difficult time for your family. You cleaned the school toilets with your sister and your parents so that you could go to a private school. You returned to Germany when you were 17. You came to FSV Mainz with coach Jürgen Klopp. How did you experience him?
At the beginning I had no idea who he is. I just noticed very quickly that he is a very special person, for whom I had a lot of respect. He knew how to address me properly. Once my mother came to visit from the USA. At training, Kloppo said to her: help us help Neven. With this sentence, which was not just said like that, he integrated himself directly into our family. Kloppo really says what he means. He does this with great respect. After a year or two you realize he can bring out the best in people. He allowed me to develop personally.
Neven Subotic and his coach Jurgen Klopp
Unlike your biological father, Jürgen Klopp was better able to show and express his feelings.
My father always saw my faults. But Klopp showed me that not everything I do is a mistake, there are also things that go well. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Jürgen Klopp almost every day for seven or eight years. Other people today pay money to see him for an hour. For me he was like an ideal: That’s how a coach can be. He doesn’t have to stand there like a general. He sees you as a person and asks: How are you? What can I do for you? Living these human values in football is a great skill that very few possess.
Expensive house, several cars: “Totally absurd”
You quickly became a regular in Mainz. Also because today’s head coach Bo Svensson was seriously injured. You quickly made a lot of money as a young guy. What did that do to you?
That was wild at first. You look at the bank statement and at first you see a lot of numbers. So what? There are no instructions as to what to do. The people around come and say: you are successful, you can treat yourself to everything. Not only do you have the financial means, you also have the moral legitimacy to spend the money. You deserve this. At the very beginning I believed that too. I bought an expensive house and several cars and treated myself to vacations. But that was totally absurd. I wandered around for a very long time before I understood that the answer is not out there but inside me.
Neven Subotic loved fast cars
How important was the exchange with people who don’t work in the football industry?
When I was 20 or 21, I had friends who weren’t involved in football. They were at the university and experienced professors every day who brought completely new ideas to them. They were challenged intellectually in subjects such as philosophy, history or literature. That was very helpful. Suddenly my daily question wasn’t: What’s the name of the next opponent? And: Which player changes from which club to where? Suddenly the question was: What is actually happening in the world? So I delved deeper into these questions.
Have you become an outsider by dealing with such questions in the football scene?
I was always a bit of an outsider – except for the times when I was the clown. Then everyone thought it was great because I played a role that was funny. But that wasn’t me. And if I have to be an outsider to be real, I’d rather be me. But I’m respected for having my own issues and going through life differently. In the meantime I have found a group that is as committed as I am. I have my team and supporters around me every day. We share the same goal. It’s not about winning the next game, it’s about creating a fairer world.
800 million people without clean drinking water
You do that with your own foundation, which you set up ten years ago. Why are you involved in well projects and sanitary facilities in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania?
The first thing we humans need is air. The second is water. If we don’t have clean water, we won’t make ends meet for long. Drinking water is not accessible to almost 800 million people worldwide. They often manage to get water somehow, but that water is forced to come from an open puddle. It’s filthy, contaminated and drives the vicious circle of poverty further. Because people drink this water or give it to their children. The pathogens ensure that every day 300 children will not live to see their fifth birthday.
I didn’t know the problem was so dramatic. I didn’t even know there was a solution. Because there is groundwater under your feet. Even in many dry regions there is groundwater. The local communities cannot bear the costs of accessing the groundwater themselves. We wanted and want to close this gap between people and the groundwater under their feet.
Giving everything Why the path to a fairer world begins with ourselves
