He discovered his talent
Uncle of DFB star was a professional
Updated on 25.03.2025 – 9:53 a.m.Reading time: 3 min.
Keven and Nico Schlotterbeck have established themselves in the Bundesliga, the latter also in the national team. Her uncle played a crucial role in this way.
The Schlotterbeck family not only produced footballing talent with the Bundesliga professionals Nico (25) and Keven (27). Her uncle Niels Schlotterbeck was once active as a player in the highest German division. In the early nineties he rose with TSV 1860 Munich and also played for Hannover 96 and Hansa Rostock.
The now 58 -year -old Niels Schlotterbeck has long ended his active career. In the meantime, he heads a football school in Weinstadt near Stuttgart – in which Nico and Keven also took part as children and also discovered their football talent thanks to their uncle. “Both were regularly in my support training, I even trained Nico in a youth team,” said Niels Schlotterbeck to the “Tagesspiegel”. The training of cognitive skills is particularly important at a young age. “The base is placed between the third and the twelfth year of life when it comes to cognitive skills. I specialize in that – and both benefit from it.”
Both are now playing in the Bundesliga, Keven Schlotterbeck at FC Augsburg, Nico near Borussia Dortmund. In addition, Nico Schlotterbeck is also an integral part of the German national team.
A comparison between Nico and Keven is difficult for the ex-professional Niels Schlotterbeck. “Keven has a little more life experience, more routine. Nico is a bit a bit more athletic, he was at the KSC’s youth performance center. There was a different work there than in the association league where Keven played.” However, both would have “a good understanding of the game, a strong left foot, a decent opening of the player and are strong,” said the former Bundesliga defender.
In his football school, Niels Schlotterbeck attaches great importance to promoting game intelligence and movement coordination. “For example, we use life kinetics. It is about cognitive flexibility that cannot be seen directly in game situations; game intelligence, peripheral seeing, such things,” said the former professional.
For him, not only the development of his nephew, but also the career of Hertha striker Davie Selke shows that this approach can be successful. “Davie was very, very big as a child, he probably had that from his mother, who was also very big,” recalled Niels Schlotterbeck. “I trained him for the first time when I was eight or nine.
Selke was not a special talent at a young age. “He was good, that because he had advantages because of his body, but also motor problems due to the size.” The later development leap was all the more impressive for Niels Schlotterbeck. “This is often the case that players who would not trust enormous performance jumps like a rocket. Most of the time it even happens only with 15, 16 – as with Selke. At Keven and Nico, by the way.”
His experiences from professional football and youth work have taught Niels Schlotterbeck one thing: the way to the professional is rarely straightforward. Especially in the youth performance centers, it is important not to get on too early. “From the age of 15, 16, I think these facilities are good. However, if children change in the e-or D youth, they are not so ripe from the head,” he said. Young talents are often under pressure early and ran the risk of being burned out after a few years.
That is precisely why he sees Nico and Keven’s path as advantageous. “Nico and Keven had a little more time out before going to the full, that was good. Anyone who moved to an NLZ at 16 has a different spirit and does not run so much to be burned out after four or five years.”
Incidentally, there is more footballing talent in the Schlotterbeck family. Niels’ son Matino Schlotterbeck (20) is currently playing in the Oberliga at VfR Aalen. There are also Marvin (25) and Marcell (30) Zimmermann, who both play in the Landesliga for FSV Waiblingen and are cousins by Nico and Keven.