SPECIAL INTERVIEW: Germany's Chances & More - Part Two

Declan Link & Paul Schmidt-Troschke speak to Martin Heckmann, Marten Mueller
& Janosch Barho about Germany's Chances & more at the upcoming tournament. 

To follow our Patreon page for exclusive series on international topics, copy and paste the link below:

https://tinyurl.com/FriendsofWorldSportsetcPatreon

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Hello, hello, Dr. Link here. Welcome to part two of our conversation with Martin, Martin and Yanosch about how they ended up going to university in America, how they ended up playing and studying at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, what their experiences were like, and whether or not they would recommend it to their fellow young German football players. Let's just have a brief uh chat about your pathways to Rollins, how you came over to America, maybe uh a high point, a memorable moment or two, and then obviously if you'd recommend it for fellow young German guys when you all came over here. So I'll go in reverse order. Uh let's start with you, Janos, from a chronological perspective, as you're our most recent player who's recently graduated.

SPEAKER_07 1:18

Um yeah, uh where do I start? Um well basically um as I said, I I was growing up in northern Germany, um, did my bachelor's uh there, or which is called like the undergrad in in the US. Um there for four years, uh graduated afterwards and kind of like yeah, was thinking about okay, what am I doing afterwards? Um didn't really yeah, had a had a close follow-up story. Um and then I was uh reading an article um about one of these agencies um which are coming up uh quite more often um in the last couple years uh here as well, who are kind of like yeah, working as an agency to to to yeah um sell or or communicate or trade um student athletes over to the US. Um and that sounded interesting, and I was like reading into that a little bit more and uh yeah, followed up on everything, and we kind of agreed on a deal, and and then they're gonna send out your highlight tape and your application basically out to all the coaches in the US, and yeah, they can see your profile, see your portfolio, um what kind of player they are uh they're after, and and they wanted to uh or wanted to see and find. And yeah, I can remember exactly. I think I was on a yeah, I was on a train from Munich back to my hometown in somewhere in winter, uh, and received an email from uh from Richard Ainsgarf. Obviously, you will uh remember him. Um Dak, uh, who was our uh yeah, grad assistant back then, uh, who was saying, like, hi, my name is Rick. I'm with uh Rollins College in Winter Park. Uh I think he didn't even mention Florida, and I was like, Oh, Winter Park sounds cold to be honest. Do I really want to go there? And then I was looking it up further and saw the beautiful campus, saw the virtual tour and everything. And yeah, long story short, I couldn't visit uh because it was uh the COVID pandemic. Um, but yeah, we kind of like sealed the deal. It was by far the best package uh that convinced me from the very first moment on. And uh yeah, I came over, made my master's in human resources and business management at Rollins, played two wonderful full years um with you, with Keith and with Luke Bowden and Rick, of course, as our grad assistant. Uh, memorable moment for me will always, of course, be all the away trips. Uh, my my first away game, um, which was in uh Wingate University um in North Carolina, national anthem, passed right up there. Uh, it was a special moment. Uh, my second year we made it to the Elite Eight. Um, unfortunately, lost in PKs. That was that was tough, that was brutal. I'm not gonna lie, but um, yeah, to sum it up, that there would be so many more stories to tell uh on the field off the field. But uh yeah, it's been an amazing two years. Um very grateful uh that I had that opportunity, that I had that chance to go. Um, I can only recommend it to every player here in Germany um because this mixture of professionalism on and off the field with all the opportunities that you have, uh, with all the staff, all the yeah, um, all the buildings, all the surroundings um is quite unique. Uh, you don't really have that here, something comparable. Uh this the standards, the professional standards are yeah, like a third or fourth tier level here in Germany, I would say. Um yeah, I can I can only recommend that to to everybody that is planning or that kind of like having that idea. Um, and as you've probably seen, I I I could talk all day about this uh experience. It's been amazing and uh yeah, very grateful that I had that chance.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

I I've got uh two thoughts. Obviously, it was devastating that we lost that uh we didn't get into the the guy the to the uh semifinal and final in um in Seattle because that would have been an unbelievable experience. But but again, that's football for you. And and again, I've I've seen although I wasn't necessarily directly involved in recruitment per se, I did get to see a lot of videos, and I do remember very distinctly your video as you were as you were doing it in your back garden dribbling and juggling around around uh flower pots and other things, it was very distinctive and very memorable. So I remember that from the malaise of all these standardized uh you know similar videos that we'd see over here. So I've maybe that video was part of the reason why you ended up carrying to Rodz.

SPEAKER_07 5:53

It it it might have been actually, and uh maybe the background behind that was like I said, it was COVID in 2021. Um so in Germany everything was closed, or yeah, even more than it was in in the US. Um, you couldn't go on any field outside, you couldn't go to any like football pitch, it was everything was locked down, everything was closed. So I had to kind of like get creative on on how to do an introduction in my like highlight tape, so to say, or video. Um, and back then it kind of like wasn't that much spread to have all these like VO cameras and everything, so yeah, I had to get a little creative on uh on on the on the tape, I guess. And yeah, but lovely to hear that kind of like this has been the distinct um memorabilia uh that yeah, maybe made the difference.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Um I remember I remember Rick forwarding it on to me because it was so distinctive. So well done, it's served its purpose. Okay, let's get on to Martin Muller from Berlin. What are your um memories? How did you end up at Rollins? And um we couldn't kick you out of the country, you're still here.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Uh thanks, Dek. Um, yeah, so I uh I kind of went through the the Hurter Berlin Youth Academy. I played there from you know U10 to U19, uh tore my ACL when I was 17, playing, you know, in the U19, and then kind of the dream of becoming a professional soccer player um in Germany faded away quickly. Um so I I switched gears, I started studying at the University of Potsdam. I actually finished um two years of my bachelor in business and economics there. Um and during that time I played um kind of semi-professional uh at at FSO Optic Artenal, which used to play in the Fifth League back then. Um and at that point, I I had some friends who um, you know, I got to know with the years, and and some of them went to the US and got scholarships. So similar to Janosh's story, I started to look into it as more. Um I also went with an agency, it was called sportscholarships.com. Um and you know, from there, um, you know, it's basically a great database, they connect you with coaches, and uh I got lucky that uh somehow Keith ended up on my profile and uh and then I uh was able to come to Rollins. And um, you know, I highly recommend um taking advantage of an opportunity like that. Um if if if someone has it, right? I mean everything has to um fit together. Uh it has to be the complete package. Without my parents, I would not have been able to come to Rollins even despite a scholarship. So um there was an amazing opportunity. Um life-changing, uh maturing perspective, from a from a growing as a person perspective, uh to go to a different country, learn about a different culture, uh acclimate there. Um and yeah, at Rollins, uh, you know, there were a lot of memorable moments. I think from a soccer perspective, it didn't go quite as good as I was hope, hoping it would. I think we had some really good teams throughout those years. Um I had shoulder surgeries in in 2013 and that kind of set me back from just a soccer perspective. Um, but with me transferring to Rollins, I was able to complete my bachelor and and also do my MBA at at uh the Crommer Business School that Rollins has. And so from a life perspective, that was you know the the perfect um perfect matchup for me. Um you know things that stand out to me. Uh Barack Obama came on campus at some point during his campaign um uh and was at the gym. Um Jane Goodell was another speaker. So Rollins has you know sometimes brings in these phenomenal speakers. So those were really unique experiences. And then um I was in Orlando um before Orlando City became an MLS team. So you know I started to go to the Citrus Bowl when it was still USL, and um, you know, we played a couple friendlies against the Orlando City game back in the day, and then seeing that movement from USL to becoming the MLS team, building the stadium. That was um really, really cool to observe and be part of as a fan.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Wonderful, wonderful memories, Martin. Thank you very much for your insight there. And last but not least, let's get the old man on, Martin Hedman.

SPEAKER_05 10:28

I love it, I love it. I this is amazing. I think uh, you know, I think about those days quite a bit, uh guys, you know, and then the older you get, I think the more the more you you know, maybe you try to learn from some of the things you shouldn't have done. Uh or or you know, just reflect on the beautiful moments you've had on the field and off the field, as a matter of fact. Uh so for me, uh, you know, I came uh to to Rollins in '99 and I think I played uh played for three years, although in my last year I blew my knee out very early in the season. So that that season was uh was unfortunately very short, and I think we were off to a really good start. Um I did my I also similar to I think Martin had uh some some uh undergraduate studies already completed in in the Stuttgart area, so I could uh I could sort of come in as an academic junior, if you will, and then finish my undergrad in two years. Uh, and then that last year um I had an opportunity to do the accelerated MBA at Crummer, uh, which you know they probably still have in their lineup, but you know, worked with a lot of uh folks who have work experience, and it was like an 11-month track, pretty intense, but uh learned a lot of things um, you know, uh as it as I moved through it. Uh it's a funny story. I mentioned it, I think, via email deck, you know, the the racket Ralph story. It was great to see the picture. I never got to see him back in the days. I didn't have cameras. I actually got a call from uh from Ralph uh back in '98 on a landline uh to come join him in uh Uln as uh as one of the last players on the squad, right? Uh after playing for uh Nussim Ludwigsborg. Back then they still had the Regionalliga Süd, uh, which was a third division uh team, probably bottom 50% quarter uh percentile, uh not the best team. And uh it was funny. I've I've had a dream way before that to always come to the US on a high school year, but you know, with with me being always uh like Janus said, you know, playing soccer since I could walk, and that was really my my love. But there were also different uh as the older you got, right, the the more the more things became interesting, you know, besides soccer, right? So I always try to balance uh the fun aspects of the field with you know the duty we have to do on the field and be competitive and move forward from a career standpoint. And um I had to tell Ralph on the phone back then that uh I will decline his offer to join him in Ulm. Uh for those guys who remember Fritz Walter, uh not the old Fritz Walter, but uh Stuttgart Fritz Walter. Uh he was actually playing at Ulm at the time, and you know, we would have uh carpooled every day uh to go uh to drive up the hill to go to Ulm and go practice. And you know, I'm not sure if that's because the reason why I declined it in the end of the day, but uh I I think uh I think it was just uh you know there was just other things in my head. Um, you know, I always wanted to come to the US, and at that time, Dek, I already had, I think, uh made connections with you guys. There were three universities that I looked at: the University of South uh South Carolina, uh uh the university in California and San Diego, um, and then and then Rollins. And uh, you know, for me, Rollins was uh also uh the clear the clear winner in the end of the day um to team and and come over there. And as you remember, uh kind of uh tying into maybe some of the memorable stories, you know, I uh for me it was quite interesting because I felt like I had a little bit of a culture shock coming from Germany more from a from a soccer standpoint, and then sort of immersing myself into a college uh system, if you will, right, where a football team or a soccer team is obviously part of. And uh so there are some some fun stories, and like like Janot, I could probably uh talk all day about this, but uh, you know, again, I like I said earlier, I reflect often on these days and the experiences and the bonds and uh the mates I I made and uh some of the folks I still talk to from back 25 years ago. And uh it's it's it's phenomenal to uh it's really a family. You mentioned it earlier on the call that I think Keith and you and maybe others have created over the years. When you go there to an alumni weekend, it's really special to uh you know see see uh the familiar buildings, the familiar pitches, the familiar faces. And uh I think that's that's what's in the end of the day, really special about it. Um, you know, now uh you know, 25, 24 years later, you know, I I uh I've been uh fortunate enough to uh to sort of spend uh a pretty good portion of that, probably 23 years coming up in the corporate world, always in uh product marketing, product management, business type development type roles. And I'm now a consultant uh working for uh for a very large uh building materials player um and and construction company. Uh here in the US, I have the luxury to work remotely and and and travel when needed. Um and uh yeah, I think uh I think from a from a recommendation standpoint, um I would absolutely highly recommend this journey to every everyone out there. It's um it's the the only tip maybe I would give is like do your do your research, uh prepare, um, make sure you're you're ready for the for the entire journey and uh you know just enjoy the ride, right? In the end of the day, it's not about what you're trying to accomplish. Uh ultimately that's part of uh part of the deal, but uh it's more important to enter on the enjoy the journey and uh make make memories along the way, create relationships.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Excellent. Thank you, Martin. That's wonderful summary. And just as a point of reference, as you affectionately called him Reckit Ralph. Wrecket Ralph, for all of our global uh listeners, is actually the current Austrian team manager, Ralph Ragnick. So we probably need to show him a bit more respect because that's what we call him in our household, having met him in uh in one of the games uh Croatia against Belgium in person. We were stuck in an elevator with him, and Tommy said to him, I called him Mr. Ragnik. And I need to ask you a question. So that was quite funny, but no, but uh you know, obviously, guys, one I appreciate Paul and I appreciate your time this afternoon massively. Secondly, you know, you three are a cross-section of a lot of other German young guys who came over and put faith in Rollins. So on behalf of you know, obviously Keith and Bod's grandjack, Rick, and all the other coaches, Joe Raymond, etc. etc. You know, you know, thank you very much for everything and we're glad that it was such a positive experience. And then last but not least, uh Paul, have you got any years of eligibility left yet? Because we'd like to recruit you to go to Rollins and get you out of Mexico.

SPEAKER_08 17:26

Oh, um so my my sporting career ended uh ended rather well rather early. Um and I was always uh I'm a I'm a very tall guy, and especially like in my um in my childhood years and then beginning of puberty, you know, you don't know what to do with uh with these long limbs and everything. So on the football pitch, I I wasn't the the I I know Janos, yeah. You you're even you're even taller than me. I just didn't know what to do with him. You probably knew. I mean, not probably, you definitely knew.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

Yeah, Yanos 6'11 was the tallest left back, yeah center back the steps from state conferences ever had.

SPEAKER_08 18:07

Yeah, I was quite amazed when I looked at your uh at your steps at uh transfermarkt. Um but yeah, very very no, and I was actually a competitive rower, and then uh when I was 16 um my niece said no, and uh yeah, that was the end of uh of any professional sporting career, unfortunately, I must say. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Well, there is uh one thing, one word in my vocabulary to sum up this afternoon, and it is Wunderbar. What about it? Excellent. Grand Grandpa is gonna be so proud of me. Thanks again, guys. And then obviously we will uh all catch up sometime in the not too distant future. And good luck to Germany and the World Cup this summer.

SPEAKER_08 18:49

Thank you. Thank you very much, Eric and Paul. Yeah, thank you so much, guys. So that's it from us for today.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

And if you just can't get enough of us, you can support us and get access to our premium content on Patreon, consisting of special interviews, deep dives, and QA's. You will find link to our Friends of the World Sports etc. Patreon page in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

And of course, don't forget to follow us and rate the show on all platforms. Your support is much appreciated.

SPEAKER_06 19:21

Also check out our World Sports, etc. podcast for more sports news and stories. And with that, thank you so much for listening and goodbye.