(Untitled)
okay fellow miserablers
Lahm has updated his Facebook (as he does once in a blue moon) and has mentioned this .pdf
Which naturally being in German means nothing whatsoever to me.
Anyone be willing to provide a translation?
upload is here from his official website
Lahm has updated his Facebook (as he does once in a blue moon) and has mentioned this .pdf
Which naturally being in German means nothing whatsoever to me.
Anyone be willing to provide a translation?
upload is here from his official website
Here's the translation. I am german, so english isn't my first language. Hope there aren't too many faults and you understand everything. I tried to translate as verbal as possible.
Had to split it up, so here's part 1 / 2.
Captain, farewell.
What my resignation as the national team leader means to me or:
The art to self-determine one's life as an athlete.
by Philipp Lahm
I will never forget the moment when I was holding up the cup to the sky in Maracanã stadium. Slowly I realized that we made it. In fact: All the trouble, concentration, effort had paid off. The pressure dropped. Basti, Miro, Per, Thomas and Manuel came to me and thanked me, that came deep from the heart, that means a lot to me. I am not a man who forgets everything around him, while celebrating, but to be world champion, that feels indescribably beautiful.
Nevertheless, I will not fool myself. I also know the other side, the disappointment that comes up, if you didn’t manage to effect the important performance. The feeling of failure is at least as deep as that of the exulting. I can devote myself to a task only completely, a “bit Philipp” simply is not possible. Some say that this is one of my greatest strengths, for me this is quite normal. To fully get into one thing, unfortunately, that can also lead to disappointment if you do not reach the goal. In football, in my profession, victory and defeat are so damn close together. How would the World Cup final probably have ended, if Gonzalo Higuain should have scored after 22 minutes for Argentina? Or another chance would have been used? I do not want to think about that.
This roller coaster ride of emotions is a challenge for any footballer. Probably you can only manage the balancing act at the highest level as a competitive athlete when one realizes over and over again: this can go wrong. I really realized that two years ago. At that time we lost with Bayern in the Finals of the Champions League at home in Munich against Chelsea. A very narrow defeat. Looking back, this was one of the games in my career, which have influenced me the most. I made one of my best games that day - but it was still not enough. First I just got frustrated. Then I thought again and again about this Final evening, and I got aware that in football, how likely generally at the highest level in professional sports, very few things are one hundred percent self-determined. We athletes are in a constant dependence of coincidences, of things that we cannot influence - some is simply luck. Slowly, I began to accept that the failure is part of it, and developed humility for what I'm doing.
A year later we won the Champions League. Sure, from the outside, one could think, what a satisfaction, all the negative experiences had been wiped out from the pleasure. But that's not that simple. I am now playing at a high level for ten years, all the impressions flow together and give a sense, the art is to draw the right conclusions at the appropriate moment. As team captain in such events, as the final of the Champions League, particularly cost a lot of power. It's not just about focusing on one’s own game. I take responsibility, develop an attitude, to go ahead. That's nice, but also consuming. Due to the extreme experiences I made within one year, I realized that I do not want competitive sport to drive me. My life belongs to me. If I want to stay happy, even after my football career, I have to decide about my life on my own, that is, to make decisions before they catch up with me.
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And here is 2/2!
So I decided in fall of 2013, to end my career in the national team after the world cup in Brazil, and to concentrate only on my leadership role as captain for FC Bayern. Of course it is a gift of fate that we now have won the title, matching to my resignation. You should stop when it is at its best, one always says. But I would have resigned too, if we would have gone home without this victory. Sometimes it may seem as if I had my life planned down to the smallest detail, everything just calculation. That sounds as if I were only assessed rationally. That's not true. Maybe people often see only what they want to see. What I, however, has always had, was a certain sense of reality. This was inevitable to develop. Without the ability of self-assessment I likely would have not established myself in professional football. Since the beginning of my career, I had to find my own role. There was no role model on which I could get my bearings. Because playing as a defender with my body height was rather the exception. I always had to think about how I could bring in my qualities, had to drive myself over and over again, had to put myself in the scene by clever actions, to come out on top.
The search for my own role meant that I worked a lot with the game and talking to my coaches about developments. I always lived a generation in front of me, ahead of time, and so I maybe grew up a bit faster. I took pleasure to bring in myself. National coach Joachim Löw has always been one of the key interlocutors for me. Maybe now is the right time to dispel the rumor that I had preferred to play in midfield than in defense at the World Cup in Brazil. For me, it played no role, at what position I supported my team. In such a tournament it is only essential that all mosaic tiles fit together. Of course I, as a captain, need to have the possibility to contribute my opinion. That was in the last years in the national team always the case. However, it is not about to enforcing anything by hook or by crook. To be captain is a constant interplay between bring and take back. In Brazil I had at any time the feeling of being able to express my views. I even think these last few weeks have been the highlight of the Cooperation between Jogi Löw and me. I still feel fit and productive. But it is time to bring new structures in my life and in the national team. Now the next generation is coming into the responsibility, the boys are partially eight, nine years younger than me and have to find their own leaders in their group, whom they respect and whose support they develop further. This process is quite normal.
Football not only involves a constant up and down of emotions. The phase in which you can play at the highest level is short, the intensity continues to increase. It is not easy to go. But I am proud of this decision. I have consciously chosen this path. Maybe I would have been able to hold my level until the European championship, but I'm glad to have freed myself and now to have self-determination over my career end in the national team.
If you have managed to develop respect for the job, then the resignation is now the logical consequence. I want my career to end at Bayern
and until then turn all my focus of my job in the club, because I know that I cannot strain this gift forever.
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THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR TRANSLATING
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When I heard about his resignation, I did not understand it. But now, after reading some of his statements, I am glad that he found the right time to leave. It's way better than watching him struggeling and then being forced to go.
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