Leon Draisaitl is visiting Cologne, his homeland. This is nothing unusual in itself. This time, however, he had a lot of luggage with him and a very concrete hope.
If the other life takes a break, the superstar finally has peace. When the plane lifts off in Canada and this ice hockey crazy country is getting smaller, then Leon Draisaitl will also calm down. “This is a very long season, with a lot of thoughts that only move around the one goal”, says Draisaitl, who will marry 30 years old this year.
Three weeks without ice hockey
“This one goal”So the Stanley Cup has not reached Draisaitl again. For ten years he has been trying to finally put this huge pot into heaven. Twice he was last in the final with the Oilers, and the winning confetti for Florida was shot twice.
The last wound is now old for three weeks “And now I’m back in an ice hockey hall” for the first time “says Draisaitl and seems to be amazed at it.
The ice hockey hall, which is mentioned here, is called “Kölnarena 2”. The shark training hall is located opposite the huge ice hockey theater of dreams, where the sharks have been waiting for a championship for 23 years. Leon Draisaitl stands on the gang and chats “Just nonsense” With three dozen mini sharks, who have only been slipping over the ice for a few years, and that one day one day will also make the leap into the professional business. In any case, you dream a little of it.
Charity: “Goals and Dreams”
From Leon Draisaitl you have an autograph card, a backpack and a jersey with the number 25. The 25 because it is because it is the NHL project “Goals and Dreams” Has been around for a quarter of a century. The idea for this was and is quite impressive: ice hockey stars give the offspring and especially their clubs a little back. Draisaitl has therefore handed over 58 complete ice hockey equipment in the shark training center.
And now, because there is still some time, and because Draisaitl also knows that a bit publicity On what, seen from Canada, the other side of the Atlantic cannot harm, he sat down in the shark’s training cabin to actually tell about his life. He reports of the upcoming wedding with Celeste Desjardin, an actress and influencer with whom he has been with him for seven years and who gave him the marriage promise last year.
The new Draisaitl
Perhaps it is the thoughts of his fiancee, maybe it is the memories of the first ice hockey years at the Cologne sharks, maybe it is the good food with his mother Sandra – at least Leon Draisaitl looks extremely relaxed. Nothing is left of this grim guy with the huge full beard, which the reporters almost looked at after the last final against Florida.
If you only meet athletes irregularly, sometimes even take a few years before you see each other again, changes are often more apparent as if you are getting along week after week. And so it gradually prevails that Draisaitl has changed a lot. He has become more open, talkative and afflicted. The grumpy and sometimes grassy, which he often stored in front of him like a tank, has completely disappeared in his home country this afternoon.
The secret superstar
And in fact you can now ask a difficult question that Draisaitl would have answered at most indifferently: How can it be that one of the best German athletes, an international superstar, that this Leon Draisaitl can still go to the Cologne horse racing without being addressed or recognized?
Football eats ice hockey
“That is exactly the topic”says Draisaitl. “It is simply difficult to gain a foothold as a German ice hockey player. Here in Germany, football is simply so dominant that there is little to do. That hasn’t really changed in recent years.” Then he takes a short break and says that of course he also likes the anonymity in Germany a bit, “Because it is very extreme in Canada when I go somewhere.”
Perhaps the conditions will soon change faster than Draisaitl that can take on today. Because at the Olympic Winter Games in Milan, a German national team will run on the ice next February, which has not yet existed. With all the top stars from the NHL, led by Leon Draisaitl. If the big throw then succeeds, it could soon be over with its anonymity in German city centers.
Future music. Just like a last thought that Draisaitl still leaves in the training hall: “I hope that my career over there will continue for a few more years. But at some point to sit here in this cabin again is definitely something that I would be very happy. You never know what happens, but the plan is that I hopefully play here again at some point.”