Interview with Lutz Pfannenstiel - "Indian football has huge potential and we want to develop young talent properly"

Lutz Pfannenstiel, Former Goalkeeper and International Advisor at TSG Hoffenheim

Unilazer Sports have launched U-Dream football – a German football training programme through which 30 boys will train at Bundesliga club TSG Hoffenheim in Germany for the next 6 years.

A pool of over 250 top players was shortlisted through scouting tournaments across India, who were ranked by their team of Indian coaches and German scouts as per their talent, performance and individual capabilities. The first 10 boys are being offered full time scholarships considering the exceptional talent they possess while the remaining 20 boys will be given 50% scholarships.

We spoke to Lutz Pfannenstiel, former Goalkeeper and International Advisor at TSG Hoffenheim who will be playing a key role in mentoring the kids and overseeing the programme once the players move to Germany.

He is the first, and so far only, football player to have played professionally in all six FIFA confederations. He is also one of the very few footballers who has played for 25 different clubs all around the world during his career, including stints in Germany, England, New Zealand, Singapore, United States, Brazil, South Africa, Finland, Malaysia, Belgium, Canada, Namibia, Norway, Armenia and Albania.

From having refused Bayern Munich at a young age to once keeping a penguin as a pet in New Zealand, he has done it all. Here are the excerpts from our conversation:

You have just come to India and are taking a look at the facilities, what are your thoughts on Indian football?

Well, to start off, I do have a bit of a background in Indian football, as I had come here two-and-a-half to three years ago to conduct coaching education courses for the German Football Association in Mumbai, Kolkata and Aizawl, so I've had the connection since then.

Yeah, it would be simple to say that a major reason for this project is that we believe there is huge potential for the development of Indian football and that is about it, we want to ensure that there is proper youth development, that the standard of football is better than what it is now, and it is my genuine belief that India is a huge market to invest time and find the right talent, and educate the youngsters in our philosophy.

What is your objective behind getting into such an agreement with Unilazer Sports and their U-dream initiative?

We were here with Hoffenheim, and were the first team to come here for our end-season journey last year where we played a game against the Mizoram Select XI, and then we visited Goa and Kolkata. So that was one of our objectives, that all the younger boys got to learn the structure of Indian football, and what we basically wanted was to establish Hoffenheim as the point of interest for the footballers and the fans here.

Secondly, the idea that Unilazer had to go to different regions and try to identify talent that weren't spotted earlier in the school system using our scouts was interesting. The fact that this programme will run for 6 years is very crucial, as nothing will happen overnight, or in 6 months or 2 years.

Of course, we might see small improvements, but for major development, a long-term plan education in the philosophy that has emerged successful in Germany and in our youth set-up at Hoffenheim (U-19 champions in Germany and top among the U-17 teams) is a prime example of how it should to be done.

In Germany, you can see how the process has worked with the national team, and the different youth national teams, and it shows this is how it should be done, and we are more than happy to share our knowledge, philosophy and know-how through the U-Dream programme, and in the future, hopefully we will produce not just good I-League players but players who will be put Indian football on the international market.

Hoffenheim's youth programme has been the strongest in Germany for some time now. What do you think has been key to that?

I think it started with German football in general, around the late 90s and early 2000s. The country was in a hole, when it came to youth development, and it was not in the best state. The whole process underwent a major overhaul, everything was changed, with a complete different structure, and intensive scouting, and a revamped process of seeing how players develop which really worked out well.

Hoffenheim, being a very modern club, are known to be innovative, and technology based, thanks to our main sponsors SAP, who helped us adopt advanced technology that allowed us to attract players, monitor their development and design unique training programmes for them. We ran school education in parallel with the football programme, with the best infrastructure everywhere. This made it very unique, and parents had the choice that they could send their child to any club, like Bayern Munich, or Stuttgart, or Hamburg.

A lot of people chose Hoffenheim because they saw that our philosophy and way of doing things involved developing our own players, and seeing them progress up the ranks, from the U-17s to the U-19s, to the reserves, and if they are good enough, into the first-team.

The presence of talents like Roberto Firmino, who came from Brazil at a very young age, and Nicklas Sule and Nadeim Amiri, who came to the club at the age of 15 are now in our first-team.

The fact that they are part of the first-team helps other youngsters decide to come to the club, where they know they will get good football education, and in the case that they do not become premier players, they will get very good schooling, which will help them become successful individuals, which is very important to our owner, Dietmar Hopp, the founder of SAP.

We pride ourselves on giving security to the parents, security to the players, and the fact that we do not go out and spend millions and millions on players, and instead focus on developing our own players, all of which are factors that are helping the Hoffenheim philosophy flourish.

Considering that this programme aims at producing professional football players, and that it encourages them to be open to travelling to different countries to play football, how do you think your experience of having played in so many different countries in different capacities will help them?

Yeah, of course, I have played all over the world, and have worked with FIFA and the German FA as a coach to educate, and I find it interesting to work in the smaller countries, to develop the talent and to bring them to Europe.

Having worked with players and coaches myself, I have seen that there is talent, and there are possibilities of succeeding in the real world as a professional. I think it is a great idea that you can guarantee that everybody in the youth academy will become a professional player.

What I also bring is that fact that in most places I was an international player, a foreigner, so I have worked in different cultures, different climates, different languages, but I enjoyed it, always tried to feel the culture, and live the same.

So, if any of the Indian boys want to talk to me about anything, I am always available. When they are in Germany for the programme, they will find things tough, they will have to compete, but the will to succeed, and the high level of competition will make them perform.

The facilities and infrastructure will help them learn, and Hoffenheim, as a club, are more than happy to try and oversee this process of development to become a professional footballer. I look at this programme as a proper milestone in moving Indian football into the right direction.

Pfannenstiel's heart stopped beating thrice on the pitch (Image credit – thenonleaguefootballpaper.com)

Having technically "died” after suffering a serious injury while playing for Bradford Park, you made your return to the football field just a week later. Do you believe your attitude towards the game itself was the most important thing that helped you continue for so long, the fact that getting on to the field was so important to you?

Yeah, I mean it was obviously a very bad accident, what happened to me. Clayton Donaldson, who was the player I collided with, it was not his intention to injure me or hurt me. It was a freak injury and unfortunately it happened. When I woke up, I realised that I was clinically dead, and that I was very lucky to be alive without any long-term damage.

(Laughs) For a day or two, I was a little bit scared, but playing football meant everything in my life. If I had waited too long, and thought a lot about that accident, especially as a goalkeeper, you cannot play with that fear, as you need to play with your body, and get in front of the feet of other players.

So I thought I needed to get out there as soon as I could. There is a saying in Germany that if you are skiing, and you fall down and get hurt, you need to get back on to the slope, and so, I made sure I get back in a week.

When I went on to the field, I had a hairline fracture in my chest, and bumps and bruises, and I was a little scared for the first 3 or 4 minutes, but once I saved the first shot, everything was back to normal (chuckles)

Of course, it wasn't very wise of me to do it, but my family gave me the strength to go ahead with it.

You gave up Bayern Munich at a very young age and chose to move to Wimbledon to joing the "Crazy Gang". Have you ever thought what could have been had you chosen to stay at Bayern?

Bayern Munich are, and have always been, one of the best clubs in the world. I really doubted whether I could be good enough to be their main goalkeeper. I was the best in my age group, but to be the best at Bayern Munich, you don't just need the talent, you also need to be realistic and I was not sure I would have really made it.

At the end of the day, I wanted to play football and not sit on the bench, so I decided to move to England and play for Wimbledon. If you look at my career, I moved around a lot and played in 6 different continents. I gained a lot of international experience, which canot be taken away from me, and that's why I think I am now in India, to help with the knowledge that I gained. That’s why, yeah, stuff like this happens. (laughs)

Coming back to the programme that you are trying to establish here, what do you see as the growth path for the children who move to Germany?

Of course, 6 years is a long time. You need to see how all the players develop, but what remains the focus is the personal development of each of the individuals. It's about how the kids feel about their education, their all-round programme, and not just about football.

It is more about offering a holistic programme, and I feel very positive about it being a school of life. The kids become adults, develop personality, and to live in a different culture helps you understand and combat things differently.

The fact that the 2017 U-17 FIFA World Cup is a couple of years away, is there any emphasis on your part to try and get someone ready for the tournament?

Yeah, I mean it wasn't a big part of our decision to do that, but there will be interest from all over the world in 2017 on India. The Indian U-17 team will be watched by scouts from all over the world, and it will promote football in India, but of course it wasn't really a factor in our vision of the project.

I would actually like to call it the "Cherry on the top." All the players of that age-group will want to represent their country, and it gives the programme an extra edge, that's all.

If the programme runs well, and there are players who have been very impressive, is there a chance that they will have a potential chance of making it at Hoffenheim?

Of course, I mean that would be the ideal outcome of the project! If there are kids who are very good, and are selected to play as part of our outfit, it would be great. However, to expect that from the 1^st or 2^nd unit of kids would be a little too ambitious.

We need to give them a chance to acclimatise to everything, and if the end result is then great, it would be perfect. We do not want to create any pressure on these players, but to have them playing for us should be our final aim.

You played in 25 countries, but which country did you enjoy the most as a player?

I enjoyed playing in Brazil the most, as a European player, it was definitely very special. I mean I did enjoy most of the countries, South Africa was brilliant, England was brilliant, so I don't really have a particular country as such, but Brazil was definitely special.

From almost becoming a teammate of Oliver Kahn's to now working with him as a pundit, how has the whole experience been?

You know I know him from before, when he was there at Bayern Munich and I was there in the youth. I worked with him before in 2010, and now recently in 2014 at the World Cup. Yeah, he's an idol for all goalkeepers in Germany and it was great to work with him, but you know, if you are doing punditry, it is important that you analyse the teams correctly and you get what you are doing right! (laughs)

I also worked with some big names for BBC, which was a bonus, but the most important thing is that you are getting your own job right!

Thanks a lot Lutz, for your time!

No problem, cheers, take care Vinay!