Energy icon in an interview
©IMAGO
At the end of the year, we look back at some of our interview highlights from 2025. In March we published the article about our conversation with ex-professional Vragel da Silva.
Energie Cottbus is surfing the wave of success. After years in the fourth division, the club managed to return to the 3rd division last season and is currently fighting for promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga. A former club icon is also happy about this. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the club to get promoted, for me Energie Cottbus means everything,” says Vragel da Silva, who played for the Lausitz team between 2001 and 2009. “I had the best time of my career here. My children were born in Cottbus, which is another reason why I will always be connected to the city,” says the former right-back in an interview with Transfermarkt. He has plenty of memories of his time at FC Energie and of coach Eduard Geyer to share.
25 years ago, Cottbus was part of the established core of professional football and da Silva was a permanent member of the club, which was to develop into one of the cult clubs in the history of the Bundesliga. In May 2000, FC Energie achieved something that can still be described as a football miracle today. The small club from Brandenburg was promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time and was even able to celebrate staying in the German upper house. The Brazilian da Silva can still remember his early days well, but he almost didn’t end up in Cottbus at all.
Da Silva’s first visit to Cottbus: “I was shocked”
“I moved to Ulm in 2000, at which time I also had an offer from Energie,” da Silva tells us. “I went to Cottbus for the first time and was shocked. I really saw the worst parts of Cottbus, including run-down prefabricated housing estates, and I knew there was no way I was going to move there. A year later I had a concrete offer from FC St. Pauli, but Energie Cottbus was also very interested again and didn’t let up. I then said to myself that anyone who showed such commitment, I would give them a chance. I then went to Cottbus for a week “I looked at everything and fell in love with the city, the people and the club. Sometimes you first have to look through the facade and into the heart of the other person.”
Da Silva was particularly impressed by a new teammate: “What Vasile Miriuță could do with the ball was brilliant. He always took it easy in training, but Ede Geyer couldn’t do anything about it because he couldn’t banish his best man from the starting line-up. Vasile was also a world champion in excuses when it came to not having to take part in fitness training. For example, he always happened to pull a different muscle group on the day of the relevant sessions and then had to sit out,” da Silva remembers with a laugh.
The legendary coach Geyer was considered the architect of Cottbus’s success at the time. From 1994 to 2004 he was on the sidelines in 378 games. In particular, his high and hard training intensity in combination with his authoritarian nature formed the basis for the positive results, even though he was loved and feared by players in equal measure.
Da Silva on Ede Geyer: “Absolute fear trainer”
“Unfortunately, the first joint training camp had to be canceled because I was lying flat with tonsillitis,” explains da Silva. “From today’s perspective, I can say: Luckily I didn’t have to train. The summer training camps were dreaded. My worst training camp was in Oberhof. We first cycled ten kilometers to the ski jump there and then we had a strenuous running session. Many people puked at the end, Ede Geyer was happy and told us it was a good session.”
But da Silva also got to see the other side of the coach: “After my career ended, I got to know Ede Geyer as an incredibly likeable, warm-hearted person. He’s really a funny guy. But as a coach he was the complete opposite. He was a mixture of an absolute person of respect and an absolute fearful coach. Sometimes he couldn’t control his emotions. I remember a game against Bayern Munich. We were leading 1-0 against Bayern at one point, but conceded the 1-1 shortly before half-time. Any other coach would have been proud of his team, he completely freaked out at halftime, smashed several water bottles against the wall and the mood was so bad and we still lost the game.
Brazilian da Silva “a German in terms of playing style”
The cult status that the defender was able to build up over the years was also due to his unconventional style of play. While many Brazilian Bundesliga players were equipped with a high level of technical sophistication, da Silva was more of an uncompromising defender. With his style of play he quickly gained a place in the hearts of the fans. “I may be Brazilian, but my playing style is German,” reveals da Silva. “For example, Vasile Miriuță could easily hold up the ball 100 times, while I lost it after five times. My strength was in tackling and headers. I wasn’t afraid and took every ball with full force. It helped me a lot that I trained a lot on the sand in Brazil and played a lot of volleyball beforehand.”
Vragel da Silva at FC Energie 2008
In his first season in Cottbus, da Silva quickly established himself as a goalscorer. On matchdays 4 and 5 of his debut season he scored three headed goals against Hertha BSC and VfL Wolfsburg. Contrary to the expectations of many experts, the club managed to stay in the Bundesliga in the second year. The fact that professionals from eleven different nations were represented in the squad did not harm the solidarity. From da Silva’s point of view, cohesion was the key success factor.
“Ede Geyer knew exactly which characters fit together and how,” says da Silva. “He signed the players accordingly. All the players were fighters and had this hunger. He also had great assistant coaches in Hagen Reeck and Petrik Sander. Petrik Sander was the type of buddy who had an open ear for every player. Only German was spoken in the dressing room and during speeches. The foreign players had German lessons twice a week – and they were compulsory. The cohesion within the team was outstanding. The majority of the team went out to eat together every day,” says da Silva.
Da Silva’s memories of great moments and ugly jerseys
Although Geyer was, according to da Silva, “a grinder,” there was also freedom under him. “After the games we won, you thought there was a steam locomotive in the dressing room, and most of the players smoked, and not too much,” remembers da Silva. “The obligatory case of beer was also available. But we also knew exactly what would happen if one of us had lit a cigarette in the dressing room after a defeat. That would have been really loud.”
From the start, the Brazilian felt arrived and at home, which in his view was also due to the fans and the rustic friendly stadium. “For the fans and the region, Energie Cottbus is more than just their favorite club. I still remember the last matchday of the 2004/2005 season. We only stayed in the 2nd Bundesliga by one goal. We had to wait for the result from Saarbrücken, who played against our direct competitor Eintracht Trier. I will never forget the multitude of emotions that alternated between absolute sadness and absolute joy.”
When asked about the jerseys back then, da Silva said what many people were already thinking back then: “The club invested more money in the squad and did without a good jersey designer. In fact, there were some ugly jerseys. The jersey that was considered absolutely ugly back then was the orange one. They always said that the garbage disposal was coming. Today I find that absolutely iconic and brilliant.”
Energie Cottbus in the 2006/07 season
His connection and loyalty to the club and the fans was also the reason why he swore loyalty to Energie Cottbus even after they were relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga. In the end, his performances and his six scorer points were also responsible for Energie completing his return to the Bundesliga on the last matchday of the 2005/06 season.
Da Silva: “The rise was phenomenal”
“Of course I could have changed, Mainz 05 and Eintracht Frankfurt wanted to sign me in the meantime, but I would only have gone for the Bundesliga. I knew what I had in Cottbus. The promotion was phenomenal. We had to win against 1860 to get promoted (to the match report). After the 0-1, I openly admit, we were knocked out, we were flat. But the fans pushed us, they made a loud noise, that was unbelievable. I’m still grateful for that today. The promotion celebration was legendary. Suddenly I had a 5-liter bottle of champagne in my hand. Daniel Ziebig was an absolute party animal, I would have fallen asleep that weekend. I have to say, without the solidarity within the team and the solidarity with the fans, we wouldn’t have been promoted back to the Bundesliga.
What were Silva’s other highlights? He has to laugh: “In fact, I can think of more games where we played really badly. But when it comes to highlight games, it’s the games against Hertha BSC. Every win against Hertha was celebrated extremely emotionally.”
The Brazilian also gets emotional when he thinks about his most unpleasant opponents. “When you consider the Bundesliga legends I was able to play against, that makes me proud. The best, in my eyes, was Zé Roberto. He was almost indefensible, he was fast, physically and technically strong. Miroslav Klose was also brutally strong, he saw gaps that no one saw. I found Luca Toni funny. With every touch he fell as if he were seriously injured. But alas, you only lost sight of him for a second, then it became dangerous.”
When da Silva looks back on his career today, he knows that he was too hotheaded in some places. Da Silva had to serve suspensions several times due to unsportsmanlike conduct. “Of course I was a hothead. I really wanted to win on the pitch, and sometimes I went overboard. Nevertheless, I look back on my career with great pride. I experienced a lot and am grateful that I was given this chance.”
Text and interview: Henrik Stadnischenko