“Had a stupid head”
Ex-professional counts club-and regret decision
19.06.2025 – 07:07 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Patrick Ebert started his profile career at Hertha. Despite a long time at the club, he now questions the dealings with him and other young players at the time.
Former midfielder Patrick Ebert questioned the start of his career at Hertha BSC. In the football podcast “tell Ma” by Youtuber “Kevinfromtheblock”, the 38-year-old told about his time as a youth national player at the capital club (2006 to 2012): “We never had free.” There was a day of free time during the week, otherwise the focus was on the games. At the time, Ebert displeased – and possibly had an impact on his career.
Because the non-international, who were under contract with Hertha at the time, would always have been released for three days. However, Ebert is not one of them, played for the German U21 between 2007 and 2009. But Ebert and other teammates at Hertha, who played for the U21, focused on their free time: “We then said: ‘Trainer, please, you can’t call the DFB and say we are hurt?
In retrospect, the ex-professional said, which ultimately came to 13 U21 games: “We had a stupid head.” Because other players from the German U21 like the then Stuttgart Andreas Beck (27 U21 games), with whom Ebert ran together, later became a international. “You can see how often we canceled. Because we also wanted to get free for three days. We had a different head.”
But Hertha is not entirely innocent either. Professionals like Beck, “they played in another club where more might have been taken care of the young players,” noted Ebert. Playing for the national team was very important. He would like someone to have told him: “Ey, go to the national team if you were invited. This is a huge honor. This can pave your way for the A-National team.”
But Ebert and his former teammates did not think so far. So Ebert’s national team career ended in 2009. After all, he won the U21 European Championship with the team. After his time at Hertha, there were stations at Spartak Moscua, Rayo Vallecano and Dynamo Dresden.