What do you make of Jovic’s return?
“I was already talking to him in summer, asking about his situation and
how it was all going. He wasn’t really happy; everybody could see that. At
the end of December, I asked him again what was going on, what the
situation was and if he wanted to come back. Surprisingly, he told me
‘yeah, I want to come back.’ I think Fredi and everyone responsible did a
great job to bring him back to have him in our team again. Three games
three goals, that speaks for itself. He’s a great addition to our team
because he has this great quality, he doesn’t need many chances to score
and that’s very important. Now with André Silva next to him, our strikers
are especially strong. With Amin Younes, Daichi Kamada, Aymen Barkok.
Behind we have a lot of quality, so that’s why I say with Luka and Amin
Younes we have two very important players now. Ragnar Ache is going to
come back, so were almost all back and that’s very important for us to
reach our goals.”
Will there be a magic trio at Eintracht: Jovic, Kostic and who was the
third?
“If you see the way we are playing right now it’s very difficult to pick
someone. Luka is great, André already has 14 goals in 18 games, Amin
Younes has scored some very important goals already, he’s making a
difference in the number 10 role. Daichi Kamada has already played a lot
of important games for us. Filip has confidence again with Luka coming
back. This, in attack, is very important for us. I don’t want to single out
three names, just to point at them. Even behind now, Tuta hasn’t played
very much, he came in and played great. The whole team is doing very
well now and we’re going to continue like this.”
Is Martin Hinteregger the new defensive leader now that Abrahams has
left?
“If you play in these positions, you have to have this attitude of a leader
and of a boss. Me, in goal, Hinti as a defensive player, Hasebe, Djibril
Sow, no matter who it is, we all need this attitude to lead and to bring
something to the team. We only function as a team, that’s why I don’t
want to single out any players because we only function as a team. If this
doesn’t happen, we’re not going to achieve anything. Of course, Hinti is
one of these players, Makoto who is now the captain from the beginning of
the games, me, and several others who I mentioned already. There are
many who can do that and, in the end, it’s going to be the coach who
decides.”
Who has influenced you as a goalkeeper?
“It’s no secret that Gerry Ehrmann was and still is a great mentor of mine,
he was there when I made my first steps in the professional soccer
business, talked to me a lot, he formed me into the goalkeeper I am
today. On the way here though, I had many different goalkeeper coaches,
ways of training, of improving. It’s difficult single out one name who is
responsible for all of it, but everything started with Gerry in the
professional business. Of course, in the clubs I came from, they shaped
me as a goalkeeper, they put me in this position but starting my career as
a professional player it was Gerry. Then of course, I came to Frankfurt
with Moppes [Manfred Petz], he had a different way to train, different way
of acting, of talking to me. What was also very important to me was going
to Paris, I think. I grew my personality a lot. New languages, world-class
players, you have to impose yourself with your character, your
personality, not only your quality on the pitch. Now coming back to
Frankfurt, I have a goalkeeper coach in Jan Zimmerman. Everybody calls
him a nerd because he is a crazy guy, he has all the statistics, he analyses
everything, he does so much great work trying to improve me, and I feel
great since I’ve been training with him. He’s very detail focused.
Sometimes we are both too ambitious, we want too much too fast but he’s
a great guy. All-in-all in every path I’ve been on, everybody could give me
something to improve on and to make me the person I am now.”
Who discovered you as a goalkeeper?
“The very first training session, I started outfield as a striker – if you can
even call it that! After training, I went to the coach and asked if I could go
in goal because I don’t like running and he said yes. Our goalkeeper was
injured so we can try it. There were many coaches in my youth who told
me you can achieve something very special but at that young age you
never know what’s going to happen, you never know if you’re going to
make it or not. Especially when we were playing with SV Mettlach in the
youth Bundesliga, you could see that they really supported me and
pushed me. They were very happy, many coaches were very happy when
I made the step, even if I gave it a push myself to make it happen, they
were always supportive. They were always behind me and had my back to
take the steps when I was young.”
How was it at PSG with all of their superstars?
“I saw Zlatan at the airport when we flew to New York and I thought
‘wow, now you have Zlatan Ibrahimović there, walking through the door,
he’s almost too tall to get through the door!’ It was impressive. In January
before I left Frankfurt, I was playing on the PlayStation with these players
and I was watching PSG against Barcelona in the Champions League and I
thought ‘wow, two incredible teams playing in Paris, must be great.’ But I
never thought about going there or whatever. When the call came in the
summer, then it was going to be real. When I got there, of course, not
many people spoke English, it wasn’t easy to communicate. I was 25, shy,
and didn’t speak much, I wasn’t sure how to open myself up and make
the first steps towards them. It was difficult but it was a great experience,
of course. Playing with them, you improve every day, you improve every
day in training, off the pitch, on the pitch, it was fantastic.”
Tell us about your lovely fiancée Izabel Goulart.
“What can I say? Of course, I look at her and say to myself, ‘I’m a lucky
guy.’ Even after six years it’s still the same feeling, I guess that’s
something very positive because after six years many people say it’s not
the same anymore. In our relationship, it’s not always the same because
she travels a lot, works a lot. I travel a lot, so it’s always different and I
guess that’s what makes it exciting, the whole thing. Hopefully, people are
going to say the same thing to her – ‘wow you’re so lucky, you have a
great guy there, a good-looking guy!’ Not only on my side. She’s an
incredible woman, she’s independent, she works hard, has her own
career, I really admire all these things in her and that’s what makes it so
interesting.”
What are your hobbies?
“In the first lockdown you had all that time to reflect and think about the
things you had never before. There was a big challenge for me, I started
to, at least to try to play the piano. I was able to learn one song, that was
incredible for me, because I like to listen to the piano, for me to be able to
play was very nice. Apart from this, I read a lot, I had never read before
because I get bored very fast. I told myself ‘you have a life after the
career’ and hopefully I still have a few years in front of me and have to do
something after. I tried to read a lot about whatever, learning a different
language again, investments, real estate, all these things. I started a
small business with a few friends, I don’t want to talk about that right
now, but it’s going to get started in the near future which is very exciting.
I try to improve myself in my personality, to see different things. Before,
everything was rushed, you didn’t have time for this and that, now you
can get closer to family again, talk to friends and see how everybody is
holding up with the situation. I have a lot of friends in the restaurant
industry, it’s very difficult for them. I try to make the best of it, even if
you can’t do very much right now.”
Matchday 9 at Union Berlin, you’re bound to remember your slip-up – how
do you deal with a situation like that?
“It’s not a great feeling, every goalkeeper knows when you make a
mistake it almost always leads to a goal, so of course, it’s not a great
feeling. Especially because it was the first or second minute of the game.
You don’t want to concede any goals with the first move. It was a mistake
and that’s not something which really bothers me. What’s important for
me is how I react and how I continue to play, that’s the most important.
Thank God I had some opportunities to save some shots, to not make it a
two, three, four nil against Union after 20 minutes, that would have been
horrible. I don’t really think about mistakes, I want to do the best and
give the best for my team, save my team, every time. If a mistake
happens, that’s the life of a goalkeeper, you have to deal with it and
continue doing the best you can. Sometimes you have the chance to save
your team and it’s probably going to be the save of the game and your
team is able to win. Sometimes not. I think more about the things I can
do well and create for the team, and what I’m able to do on the pitch than
thinking about the mistake.”
You’ve saved 5 out of 22 penalties in the Bundesliga, a good ratio in my
view…
“We have faced a lot of penalties this year, I think. Unfortunately, I
haven’t saved one, but my goal is to save more. Thanks for the
compliment, but my goal is to save more, if it happens the next games
I’m going to save them. That can be the game winning save.”
You were born on 8th July 1990, an extremely good and important day,
right?
“Great day for the German nation, the football nation. And for my parents
because I was born in the morning and for football fans because Germany
won the World Cup. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I became a football
player. It’s a great day and a nice day to remember. Actually, I met
Andreas Brehme once on holiday. He scored the decisive goal in the World
Cup. You always talk about this, history, then you meet him. It’s just
incredible.”
What has been your best moment so far in your time in the Bundesliga?
“Of course, my first game because it was very unexpected. It was 5
minutes before the warmup when Tobi Sippel said he couldn’t play. I have
a lot of memories, especially here in Frankfurt, talking about the
Bundesliga, the most remarkable one is my first game, but there were
many strange games, comebacks, being three-nil behind and still winning
the game. Especially in Frankfurt, when you have the crowd here and they
are pushing you, you have goosebumps playing here. One of the great
moments was playing against Wolfsburg, 2013 I think, I was injured, it
was to decide whether we’d be playing in the Europa League or not. I
think the other game was Leverkusen against Hamburg. We were two-nil
down against Wolfsburg and every team was scoring but Hamburg and
Leverkusen. I think Hamburg couldn’t win and they were playing at home.
We were two-nil behind, and it was such a nervous moment. We scored to
make it 2-1, then 2-2 and in the same moment the results came in,
Hamburg-Leverkusen, and Leverkusen had scored. There was just a big
party in the stadium, everyone was hugging each other and crying and
being happy because it was almost impossible to not qualify at that point.
That was one of these remarkable moments I’ve had here in Frankfurt.”
