Interview after 10 years of FCSP
Christopher Buchtmann was sitting in front of the television when HSV met Hertha in the Bundesliga relegation. “I was completely neutral,” he emphasizes. The former U17 European Champion had no melancholy. Unfortunately, he and his FC St. Pauli only had to give up the season finale in which Hamburg’s city rivals were allowed to try their hand shortly before the end of the season. However: From now on it is no longer his St. Pauli anyway. After ten years, the midfielder has to leave the neighborhood club. The 30-year-old tells Transfermarkt how his football career is going and why not at FCSP.
transfer market: Mr. Buchtmann, if you had to say one word to the fans after ten years at St. Pauli, what would it be?
Christopher Buchtmann: Thanks!
transfer market: And now a word to the sporting leadership of the club. Or feel free to take a whole sentence here.
Buchmann: I have to accept what happened, but I don’t fully understand it. It was pretty wild how it all ended, but I don’t want to step in.
transfer market: Then I’d rather say a few words to the fans.
Buchmann: The way they always supported us, always stood by our side – we not only had good phases at St. Pauli in the last ten years, we also played against relegation – I don’t know if that’s going to be the case again of the kind in Germany. That is unique at the Millerntor. Nobody whistles. We once played the biggest grits and were still pushed forward.
Buchtmann at the forefront of St. Pauli’s history – would he have liked to have stayed longer?
Some call him the “last Mister St. Pauli”. Since 2012, no one from the previous team has been on board as long as he has. In the whole of the 2nd Bundesliga there are only three players who have collected more contract years with their team than Buchtmann with the brown and whites. In FCSP history, he is one of the top 10 players since the 1980s who have been in the professional team the longest at Millerntor. Now he’s sitting across from us, ready to jump again. And he makes it clear early on that he doesn’t want to look back so much on the somewhat annoying farewell to his old love. A new chapter is about to begin.
We talk in a café in Eimsbüttel, Buchtmann was just in the gym next door, where he alone is preparing for what may come next. “I’m getting really fit,” he says. And he’s obviously in good spirits, grinning at the occasional Hamburg sunbeams. But of course we can’t do without a look back.
transfer market: Would you have liked to have stayed longer at St. Pauli?
Buchmann: If you’ve been here for ten years, you can of course imagine staying longer. My wife is from Hamburg. I’ve always liked it here. In my very good second division years, I always extended, which is not a matter of course. But now a new opportunity presents itself and we feel like starting a new chapter.
transfer market: With the impending upheaval in midfield at St. Pauli, as an experienced player in this team you might even have been the ideal man for the new season. Why can’t it continue?
Buchmann: I can’t say for sure either. I wasn’t even offered anything. Only: you can go. I could already imagine it somehow, because over the past two years the older ones have tended to be sorted out. But still: I was hoping that there would still be a different way. But that’s the way it is. I’m excited to see what’s going to happen at St. Pauli.
transfer market: Where could you go next?
Buchmann: I am open to many things, I would listen to everything.
transfer market: Would you also go to the 3rd division?
Buchmann: If it were an exciting project, I wouldn’t fundamentally say no to it either. The whole package has to fit.
Buchtmann “really hot for something new” – Why wasn’t it enough for the top?
There is nothing concrete yet, as we learn from Buchtmann’s advisor, Jan Dreyer (SEG). There are a number of inquiries, talks are being held. The player wants to consciously take the time to make the optimal move. Buchtmann’s advantage: The young family has not yet settled down – no children in school yet. Another adventure can begin. Maybe an adventure abroad? Buchtmann can imagine it, only took a three-day break from training, says: “I’m really looking forward to something new and in top form”. Speaking of…
transfer market: Our impression has always been that when you’re in top form you can be a real difference player. But that never worked for a long period of time. Why was there no consistency?
Buchmann: If you look at my CV, it’s relatively easy to find out.
transfer market: Injuries…
Buchmann: Yes. That’s very clear. In the good seasons in which I scored four goals in the first few games (2016/17 and 2018/19, ed.) I then torn ligaments. I had pubic arthritis, which every footballer has at some point, two metatarsal fractures. Of course, I was also often kicked over. It’s not as if I would shy away from a duel. Then I was always out for six or seven weeks, and you also need that time to really get back into it. Maybe that’s why it didn’t make it to the top. But I don’t regret it afterwards. The important thing is that I’ve been completely injury-free for a year now.
transfer market: Leaving the club now after ten years, like after a long relationship, can you imagine anything new right away?
Buchmann: The last week of team training, I really had to pull myself together. I’m actually not the type to show emotions, but then in the stadium after the last game, everything came out of me. But it has to go on somehow. I can’t stop now. The three or four days after the last game I still didn’t feel that great, but now I’m slowly getting out of it, I’m going on vacation with my wife. And we’re looking forward to seeing something other than St. Pauli.
Buchtmann, Boll & Co.: Players with the most appearances for St. Pauli
Buchtmann’s last substitution: “This time I actually cried”
In his last game it got really loud in the stands. Buchmann didn’t score a farewell goal in the 2-0 win over Düsseldorf, but the fans showed, as coach Timo Schultz described it afterwards, “a very fine feeling” for Buchtmann’s longtime companion when his number was on the substitution board in the 77th minute lit up.
transfer market: At that moment you immediately grabbed your face in front of your eyes. From a distance we couldn’t interpret that exactly? Was that tears or wiping sweat or just disappointment that there wasn’t a hit left?
Buchmann: Those were tears, of course. It started with the substitution and continued until after the game. When 30,000 fans cheer you on and sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” – that usually gives you goosebumps. But this time I actually cried. That was awesome. Also with Philipp Ziereis and Matze Hain (were also said goodbye, ed.). What we’ve already experienced together… like the season in which we only scored eleven points in the first half of the season and then won almost everything in the second half of the season and ended up in seventh place. That welds together.
Buchtmann on England in the Bundesliga: “What I underestimated was the homesickness”
transfer market: Despite your very long time at St. Pauli, you have had an amazingly varied career. U17 champions with BVB, then it was off to Liverpool FC. How did that happen?
Buchmann: There were scouts from Liverpool and Chelsea for my first junior international. They asked me if I would like to take a look. Cristiano Ronaldo was always my role model, he played for Manchester United, so I definitely wanted to go there and see things in England. And then I liked the trial session so much that I said I’ll do it.
transfer market: During your time at Liverpool you also became European U17 champions from time to time…
Buchmann: And I was with Liverpool in my second year when I was 17 and was already in the U23s in Melwood, where the U23s also trained with the pros. What I unfortunately underestimated was the homesickness. After a few years it was clear that I wanted to go back to Germany. Maybe it was two or three years too early. When I was 16, I wasn’t even allowed to drive a car.
transfer market: You almost made your professional debut in the Premier League with Fulham FC, where you were twice in the matchday squad.
Buchmann: I would have even been in the squad for the Europa League final. In Hamburg. Fulham vs Atlético. But I wasn’t registered. Looking back now – I was in the squad when I was 17 and in demand as a young player – maybe it would have been better if I had stayed (grins). At least I can speak perfect English now.
transfer market: But then I went to Germany for two years to 1. FC Köln in the Bundesliga relegation battle. You then had to experience the relegation first hand because you were used as a joker for the first time in exactly the last two games of the relegation season. Then you left the club again. Wouldn’t you have had even better chances with the relegation?
Buchmann: Yes, but when a coach comes along who doesn’t like you that much, it becomes difficult. I was one of the candidates, along with many others, to leave to thin out the squad. Then Holger Stanislawski came and I went to St. Pauli.
transfer market: Do you want another real sporting challenge, or are you headed towards the end of your career, where the focus is more on the beauty of the goal?
Buchmann: If that were the case, I wouldn’t be back in training right now. I’m really in the mood to step on the gas again in the last few years.
Tobias Picker conducted the interview
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