RETIRED STAR TELLS HIS STORY
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Deisler story acts as a lesson to the game
Most talented youngsters spend their lives hoping and praying that they may one day realise a dream of becoming professional footballers with the guarantee of fame, a full bank account and an Aston Martin in the driveway. This is the way the business and football world measures success but it does not always lead to a happy life. That's a lesson Sebastian Deisler quickly became familiar with as he began to learn the harsh realities of modern football.
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Deisler quit the game in January 2007 after depression and injury put paid to his career
At the end of September, Deisler will launch a book that unveils some of the less glamorous sides of professional football that ultimately led him to bring down the curtain on a promising career already as a 27-year old. This was an unlikely and unfortunate finish for the "most talented German midfielder since Günter Netzer" who, blessed with speed, dribbling ability and an eye for a cross, burst on to the scene with Borussia Mönchengladbach as an 18-year-old in 1998.
Young girls were fainting in his presence and "Basti Fantasti," as the tabloids called him, was on top of Bayern Munich's list because he had a rare marketability as well as raw skill. So eager were the Bavarians to get this wunderkind that they paid Deisler a cool 10.2m euros (£7.3m) as a signing-on fee on top of the £6.6m that his club Hertha Berlin received when Franz Beckenbauer and co eventually got Deisler's name on a contract in 2001.
In three seasons in Berlin, Deisler had set the Bundesliga alight despite being out for over a year with two nasty knee injuries. When he appeared for media interviews, the easy-going and eloquent Deisler gave no indication that he was slowly developing a serious depression. But behind the scenes Deisler was struggling to cope with the eternal quest for status, power and titles which according to himself were key symbols in a world dominated by huge egos.
"I was at constant war with myself to keep myself afloat in a world of the rich and famous where I certainly did not feel at ease", said Deisler in an interview with Die Welt.
"I was only interested in the joy of playing football and for me Gucci-glasses and Prada T-shirts were less important. At one stage I found myself sitting in my apartment in Berlin thinking "everybody in Germany knows your name, you have reached the top and outside your door is a Mercedes. Is this it? Is there not anything more than this?" You know, I was so unhappy. When I was writing autographs I tried to give the fans something personal. But the second question they asked me was always: What car do you drive or how much money do you make? This really made me depressed," said Deisler.
Deisler also admits that there were issues in his childhood which combined with the extreme pressure of carrying the football hopes of a whole nation accelerated his disillusionment with the game.
"When I was young playing football in the streets, the other kids would mock me for being small. We were of course kids but it hit me very hard. At the same time my home was not a place I could withdraw to for getting support as my parents had other problems to deal with. This made me wish to move away from home even though it was too early for me. At the same time my ambitions and talent made everything develop far too fast and I was thrust into a very harsh adult reality when I was still like a child. At that time the national team was doing very poorly, so even though I was only 19 everyone expected me to save Germany - the reality was that I was the one who needed to be saved. The expectations were simply too big to put on my shoulder," he said.
When, in January 2007, Deisler suffered yet another ruptured knee ligament of the kind which limited his Bayern spell to just 62 league appearances in four and a half years, the German midfielder decided to call it a day, much to the frustration of Bayern's general manager Uli Hoeness who then claimed that "Bayern had lost the battle of Deisler" and that he felt baffled by Deisler's decision.
Like Hoeness, most of the international football community has since Deisler's retirement struggled to come to terms with the background for Basti Fantasti's decision but this will presumably be revealed when Deisler's book ("Zurück ins Leben. Die Geschichte eines Fußballspielers." - "Back to Life - The story of a Footballer") co-written by Michael Rosentritt is published on September 29. According to the publisher, the book will uncover Deisler's passion and love of the game as well as his paranoia and depression. But the book will undoubtedly provide new ground for criticising the social trauma inflicted on young footballers and the unbearable pressure put on their fragile shoulders.
Former German national coach Rudi Völler earlier brought in a psychologist to work with the national team players in the wake of Deisler's nightmare: "You have to learn the lesson from what has happened to Sebastian."
"The truth is that the pressure on the players are just getting bigger and bigger. It is getting out of hand," Völler said in a statement encouraging other coaches to follow suit. But according to chairman of the Danish Footballers Union and former Danish international, Thomas Lindrup, the international football community still has a lot to learn from the Deisler experience.
"I am sure there are a lot of footballers walking around out there with the same problems as Deisler but without telling it to anybody because showing emotion is a sign of weakness in the modern football world", said Lindrup to Soccernet. According to Lindrup, there are three factors that combine in making professional football an extremely mentally challenging environment to venture into for young talents.
"When some players go from being relatively unknown to earning a lucrative contract with a big club they go from one world into another. They have to deal with all the insecurities of turning from youngster into an adult and at the same time having to deal with all the dangers that follow in the wake of becoming famous and earning a huge salary. Many feel alienated because they have difficulties adapting to a world which may seem very materialistic and superficial. Perhaps they have earlier been the centre of a small group and suddenly they are only a small fish in a big pond where they feel they are being treated as a commodity and not as a person", says Lindrup.
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Deisler: "The expectations were simply too big to put on my shoulder"
Lindrup also points to the fact that too many bad agents create difficult scenarios from young and upcoming footballers: "Many agents only have an eye for how much money they can make on a deal instead of making sure the player will come to a club where his ambitions can be fulfilled and where it will be fairly easy to adapt socially for him. We have many players who call us only very little time after they have arrived at a new club because the coach has immediately thrown them off the team and at the same time they have big difficulties adapting to the culture of the country they have gone to. Problems like that often arise because the agent has not done his work properly."
Lindrup, who was formerly regarded as one of the most talented wingers in Denmark while playing for Brøndby IF, also focused on the pressure in professional football which can turn young footballs love for the game into sheer frustration.
"When you are traded for x number of millions, you are also expected to deliver the goods and usually youngsters are not given the time they need in order to be able to become a success. The club and the fans perhaps expect the youngster to get them out of hot waters but instead it is really the youngster who needs the support. How can anyone expect you to lead a club or a nation when you are only 17, 18 or 19?
"Only very few have the mental skills to handle such a situation and if your head is not working your feet won't either." Deisler, sadly, lacked those mental skills and will be remembered as an object lesson rather than as a great footballer.