GQ-ness
The new issue of the German GQ features Holger Badstuber, Mark van Bommel, Toni Kroos, Philipp Lahm, Thomas Müller and Bastian Schweinsteiger. They did a shoot for BOSS BLACK and BOSS SELECTION.
On their website is an interview interview with Uli Hoeneß and one with Mark van Bommel, Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger.
A short video is included on the first page. Seems there will be a longer version available on FCB.TV.
The interview with the players starts on page 6.
If one were able to set up a team personality profile during the two hours we spend with Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Mark van Bommel for the Boss-shoots, the role allocation would be obvious: Bastian Schweinsteiger radiated the whole time the looseness of a man who has found himself. An idol worldwide who seems to not be underneath any pressure. On the contrary, Philipp Lahm always had something serious which probably was related to the smouldering conflict about the position of the DFB-captain, at the time of the interview. And was that really Mark van Bommel? The Dutch totally doesn't meet his image of a lout - he is one of the most friendly players of the Bundesliga. Also as the topic 'money' came up in our business talk.
GQ: Mister Lahm, Mister Schweinsteiger, Mister van Bommel - the way you sit opposite of us you are worth 69,5 million euros, according to guesses of transfermarkt.de. o you know who is the most expensive player of you?
Philipp Lahm: No, I don't know.
Bastian Schweinsteiger: The interesting thing is how those sums are created. When you close a well paid contract or change clubs for a high transfer fee, then the worth rises without you having become a better footballer at that moment. In general it is surely so much the better the higher the amount is which is written there. But for my daily life it is fully insignificant. If the trainer advances me does not depend on that.
GQ: To solve this: Philipp Lahm is worth 28, Bastian Schweinsteiger 35.
Mark van Bommel: And what is written there for me? 6,5 millions, right? Congratulations, Bastian. You are as good as five van Bommel.
Lahm: Now, seriously: Are we doing the Bundesliga-Managergame? 6,5 millions for Mark and 35 millions for Schweinsteiger, all of that is just baublery for me, that has nothing to do with reality.
Van Bommel: What is written there for, for example, Ronaldo?
GQ: 90 million Euros.
Van Bommel: So more than three Philipp Lahm? Those amounts are pure fiction. In Spain it even is common that for each player a transfer fee is specified in the contract. When I played in Barcelona there was written a 35 for me. And I changed to FC Bayern for less than 10 millions. When suddenly three teams want a player or one scores five goals during the WC, there can be 35 millions written in the contract, but then he will transfer for much more. That simply corresponds with supply and demand.GQ: How much respect does one receive at Bayern for a high market value?
Schweinsteiger: I, as I said, don't even know the current values - because it doesn't matter.
Lahm: Respect is something which you have to earn yourself as a footballer through performance on the pitch and over a longer span of time - every day again.
Schweinsteiger: I have respect for someone when he plays on this level at the age of 33 like Mark. I am 26 and don't know if I can manage this. Maybe somewhen my body gives in. What always fascinates me is how well toned players like Mark are - or also Lúcio, Zé Roberto or Jehns Lehmann who stilled played for Stuttgart at the age of 40. I have respect for their disciplin.
GQ: How much does one have their market value at in the back of their minds? Do you think the whole time: I have to be fit, I can't do this or that?
Schweinsteiger: I try to influence what I can influence: my performance on the pitch. The whole remains depend on that.
GQ: Footballer sometimes justify their high wages with the personal cutbacks they have to accept.
Lahm: I think that we for sure have a lot of luck that we are able to play football as our job and earn a lot of money with that. But those cutbacks without any doubt exist for a professional footballer. Already the first time wasn't easy; I came to Bayern at the age of 11.
Schweinsteiger: Me at 14.
Lahm: What was the case for you Mark?
Van Bommel: I also was 11 as I played half professional for the first time.
Lahm: And then you start to train four or five times each week. Already as a kid you have to do without much free-time. You have no weekends, no holidays - the whole daily routine was inflicted upon us.
Van Bommel: I have to say that because of that I missed nearly my whole youth. Not that I regret that. But back them my friends were going to clubs till five in the morning on Friday evenings. That is something I never experienced.
Lahm: Or in the afternoon on a nice day to an open air pool - impossible. Instead of that we had to go to a training session.
Van Bommel: One sacrifices a lot and quite soon has no privatesphere left, only much later you get a small bit back of that. And one always takes the risk that someone the professional career doesn't work out anymore, because you injure yourself or fail for another reason. Of course my friends envy me for my career - they have a nine-to-five job and say: You did the right thing, you didn't go partying back then, but now you are a professional footballer.
GQ: How much money do you actually carry in your wallet right now?
Lahm: That depends on what I have to do on that day. Now it's 250 euros.
Van Bommel: For me 140 - I think that's quite normal, isn't it?
Schweinsteiger: For me it's something inbetween.
GQ: Was there a point in your past where you realised: Now I have set for life, now nothing can happen to me?
Lahm: I am 26 years old. I don't think about having set for life.
Van Bommel: We three are no personalities who spend money like water. But there surely are athletes where one million is soon gone when you look at their spendings.
Lahm: Of the NFL-players 60 percent are on the rocks after their career. They don't manage to adapt their life to a normal level after their career.
GQ: Cue personality: Uli Hoeneß said he only wants to have players who have a strong personality. What kind of personality does one need to survive at Bayern?
Van Bommel: You are never allowed to give up. After each match there will be another which you have to win.
Lahm: It is mainly about identification and passion for what you do. You have to get along with the pressure. That already starts for the children. Each year three or four players have to leave. Imagine you are sorted out as an 11 year old. Even has a kid you had the pressure.
GQ: Does the pressure not paralse you?
Lahm: That can happen when expectations are too big. One has to be able to deal with that.
Van Bommel. In my youth there were a few players who were better, but weren't able to bear the pressure.
Lahm: Also around me there were ones who were more talented. But they went partying in the evenings and playing on the next morning. They didn't succeed because they couldn't pass on anything.
GQ: The three of you are considered to be leading players. What is important when one is in that position?
Lahm: Mainly you have to know that you can't deal the same with everyone. That's not only the case for football - you need to have certain psychological skills. You get that from experience. By now Bastian and me are experienced players after seven, eight seasons as professionals.
GQ: Do you players come to you to ask concretly for your advice?
Van Bommel: Somtimes, but usually that happens during normal conversations.
Lahm: All of us sit together on a table or in the canteen, also the youngest of us, David Alaba, for example, talk freely there with us - by doing that they learn a lot. That's what we did back then as well.
GQ: Which other leading players do you look up to? Do you have role models?
Schweinsteiger: For me that always Zinédine Zidane. He was able to direct a team and pull everyone with him without screaming around a lot. I always liked that style. That's how a leading player has to appear.
GQ: What do you think in retrospect of the headbutt?
Schweinsteiger: At first I didn't understand it, but by now I do. Of course Zidane has to be a role model, but after that provocation it was comprehensible. Maybe I had reacted in a similar way.
GQ: Do you already think about what you want to do after your career? Back then the classical thing for a footballer was to open up a Toto-store.
Schweinsteiger: Exactly, and then go bankrupt with that.
Van Bommel: Of course I think about it, because I won't keep playing for that long anymore.
Lahm: How about opening a tulip-store.
Van Bommel: Maybe, but it's more likely I will become a coach. In the Netherlands you need four certificates to work as a coach. I already have two.
Lahm: I have my foundation. I want to engage more in that after my career.
Schweinsteiger: That's difficult to say. When I am at Mark's old age I might think about it. But I think that quite for sure I need some space from football.
Van Bommel: That is important - I already play since 1992, but when was the last time I had a free weekend? Or three days free when I wanted.
Lahm: Yes, or vacations when one wanted.
Schweinsteiger: I already now enjoy it to sit here at the Gärtnerplatz in Munich, to trink an espresso, to stroll around close by the Isar, to go to the Viktualien-market. It is important that you keep doing normal things.
GQ: Coming to an end, what virtues can you pass on to your children as a professional footballer?
Van Bommel: To get along with highs and lows. That is the most important thing for a footballer.
Lahm: I think that for young people fairplay is important.
Schweinsteiger: Dealing with defeat is fucking difficult - especially because here at Bayern we aren't use to that. To nevertheless shake the hands of the opposite team's players after a match. That is something you have to learn.
Those gents thank you for your time.
Philipp would thank you too, but he's too busy playing with the ball.
Thanks to sleepy_cat_28 who found the link.
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