Interview with the European champion: Andreas Köpke becomes 60
Mr Köpke, you will be 60 years this Saturday. 60 years young or 60 years old?
**** I do not make a head about things that I can not change anyway. I’m physically great on it. 60 is a number, more not.
They say they are fit. Do you do a lot of sports?
Daily. Or at least six times a week. I do a lot of peloton on the treadmill, I have a bike. I am daily at the fresh air.
How will you spend this special birthday?
**** I am in my parents in Kiel. There is dream weather, not normal for March. My parents are over 80, we celebrate a bit with the family and in the closest circle of friends. Unfortunately, my son Pascal can not come, I hurt me, but the 1st FC Nuremberg plays on Sunday in Hanover. I know it from my professional time that you can not perceive some dates because of football.
If your son scored the winner in Hanover, but are they reconciled?
****Yes, in any case. Then I can accept it that he does not come.
It seems like a finger snap: First, the active time was over, then the 17-year coaching time at the DFB.
Your WhatsApp profile shows the national colors of Ukraine and the Peace Dove. What thoughts and feelings come up in them if they are confronted with this war in Ukraine?
**** I’m hard to think of celebrating when you see these terrible pictures of the suffering children and civilian population every day, what a Putin contracts. You get a goose bump. And we still do not know where all this leads. I just hope that this man comes to reason as soon as possible and a solution is found so that this war events finally ceases and not more people die. My birthday party will be a bit quieter. We will definitely think of people in Ukraine.
We belong to a generation, which has so far not experienced a war directly. Let’s realize what happened for luck we have so far?
**** In any case. You can now understand something that it meant when the parents and grandparents told about the war. We try to help with donations, but are not in the midst of it and get it only about the media. But there are not all reports. The general messages spread today are a major problem.
Do you have problems with the older?
****Not really. Only if I’m addressed that I’ll be sixty, it will be aware. However, I wonder where the time has stayed and how fast everything has passed. It seems like a finger snap: First the active time was over, then the 17-year coaching time at the DFB.
What is your everyday life today?
So much has not changed. Also in the coaching time it was phases quieter, despite the game viewing. I live in Nuremberg, do some promotional activities, I’m not boring. I was well to shut down after the 17 DFB years and to enjoy the time more.
Is football for you today, above all, cheering about the gates of her son Pascal, who has recently achieved a goal for the 1st FC Nuremberg in the second league after a cruciate ligament tear in the second league?
**** First and foremost, yes. But of course, the national team, Bundesliga and Champions League continue to pursue my schedule in football especially to Pascal. Everything else I take as it suits.
They started as a right outside at Holstein Kiel: beat her hidden striker genes with her son?
**** Voluntarily went to my time nobody went to the goal, everyone wanted to shoot goals. At Pascal, due to its greetings from 1.78 meters, it was never a topic that he would go to the goal. I’m glad he became striker and knows where the gate stands.
The upper teams of the 2nd league come to Nuremberg, the FCN team is currently very consolidated and has it in the hand.
Does your pre-painting club 1. FC Nuremberg, whose gate is hitting it in a total of eleven years – from 1986 to 1994 and from 1998 to 2001 -, still on this season?
****It will be difficult. But the starting situation is comfortable, no one speaks about the club with a view of the climb. The upper teams of the 2nd league come to Nuremberg, the FCN team is currently very consolidated and has it in the hand.
They were active at Holstein Kiel, at the SC Charlottenburg, Hertha BSC, the 1st FC Nuremberg, in Frankfurt and Marseille and a second time in Nuremberg. Which station was the most beautiful?
**** Nuremberg is my heart club. The most beautiful time was in Marseille. We had the three years I played from 1996 to 1998 for Olympique, a great troupe with Laurent Blanc, Christophe Dugarry and Fabrizio Ravanelli. There it made the most fun, also from life, with sun and Cote d’Azur. I’ve learned the language, the children were big, still today I have friends there, and our house is there. We are regular in southern France, it’s like to come home.
was Marseille So the optimal compensation for that in 1996 the already certain changes to FC Barcelona still crushed?
**** It is forgotten. When the change burst, it was initially a disappointment. Marseille, the stadium, the fans have compensated for everything. It may be like that. Fate has compensated me.
Which of their former clubs – except Nuremberg – look at the game result today?
**** Marseille I look at me, recently the 0: 1 against Monaco. Actually, I observe the development in all these clubs, for example, for example, the more when I was there at the end of 2019 for four weeks with Jürgen Klinsmann.
How do you judge the development in Berlin?
**** I already have abdominal pain when I see how it runs there. The Hertha plays very well up to one goal, then the stream is down. The team does not turn a game and must be damned that she gets the curve.
They talked to the 17 years at the DFB: Which feeling is wide in them when they think of the farewell?
****Satisfaction. And gratitude that I could be there for so long. We have predominantly experienced positive times. As in the right life, it was not always uphill. Especially the last three years, starting with the 2018 World Cup, were tough, the whole theater at the DFB, many theaters. Again and again, when we got the curve, we set ourselves a leg when I think of the0: 6 in Spain or the 1: 2 against Nordmasedonia, where you thought, that can not be true. So we never got really quiet. After 17 years – I came in 2004 with Jogi Löw in Jürgen Klinsmann’s team – it was the right time to say, then I go with Jogi.
Then we divorced in the preliminary round in Russia. I can not stick it to a point until today, why it went into the pants.
Was it too late?
**** I do not give much to such statements. I can not explain it to this day why it went so. For the 2018 World Cup, we have set the best qualification and won each game. Everything had been ok to the World Cup preparation. Then we divorced in the preliminary round in Russia. I can not stick it to a point until today, why it went into the pants.
In London, Thomas Müller has passed freely past the gate in London in the EM-Eachelfinale, because the entire situation was complicated? Or was it inability or bad luck?
**** It often depends on little things. Since 2018 everything ran against us. Hansi Flick makes it great, but the crucial difference is that players now meet the gate again. It was like a red thread and been so in 2016: At the crucial moment we did not do the doors…
… in the EM semifinals against France in their second home in Marseille…
****… yes, it was madness. Always the same pattern.
How did you like the seven games under the new national coach Hanis Flick?
**** The games total were good. But if it had been under Jogi Löw against Liechtenstein at half-time 0: 0 and would have come out at the end of a2: 0 for Germany, there would have been an outcry in the country. Now it was said: good. It was necessary that such an elimination mood was created and this permanently negative attitude disappeared.
What are you trusting the German team at the World Cup in Qatar?
**** We have a good squad with young people you develop super, Kai Havertz or Florian Wirtz. In the case of a good start, much is possible. For the big coup you need luck, sporting quality and team spirit. It is much possible, but the competition is strong. The German team can exist against every opponent, but must come in this flow.
In which areas does she have to improve?
**** We have – and that has not changed under Hansi Flick – our positions on which we are not double or triple occupied. The centerout is missing us, on the defensive outer positions we could grow. Maybe there is Robin Gosens left, which has Power Power. Against the really strong teams you have to be defensively well. We have enough good players forward.
Do you miss your activity with the DFB?
**** Initially yes. I thought, actually I would have to be there now. It was unfamiliar after a long time. So I went to my active career, because I sat in the cafe and asked me what I did now, where I would have to get warm now. My four goalkeepers, Manuel new, Marc-André Ter Stegen, Kevin Trapp and Bernd Leno I miss and again, but the contact is and will not tear off. We have experienced so much together, I was not missing in no single international game in all the years. Also, the connection to Löw, Oliver Bierhoff or Marcus Sorg will always hold.
Marc Andre Ter Stegen, Torwarttrainer Andreas Köpke, Kevin Trapp, Manuel Neuer and Bernd Leno (V.Li.). imago images / team 2
They were 28 years old when their career began in the national team, with 36 they stopped. New will be 36, ter sts at the end of April 30. is Ter Stegen’s career past the national team before she started?
No. He already has some international games…
… 27 are so far…
****… but as long as Manu’s newer is there, it becomes difficult because the coach on the goalkeeping position must set a man. For the other behind it will be difficult. That also hurt me for Trapp and Leno because they could not do justice to them. There are just too few international matches.
How often did you attack the thought on the DFB bank that you did not feel like it anymore?
**** I never had this feeling, except maybe before the 1994 World Cup, as national coach Berti Vogts said Bodo Illgner will play. At resignation, however, I did not think, although I was right down. For me it was always an award to be at the national team. How many goalkeepers dreamed of it? Nevertheless, you are second or third Tormann at the national team, but already want more. But as a goalkeeper you have to be patient and be on the crucial moment.
At what age did they feel that it becomes less with the reaction or bounce?
**** Actually, I have not felt it immediately. If I were not in Nuremberg, but in a club that played a good role in the Bundesliga, I could have played two, three years. Much is carried in from the outside by saying it, this or that ball he would have held earlier. With increasing age you train differently, more targeted.
In what way?
**** Less, but more explosiveness. You train consciously because you know what you need.
And the routine is a priceless value?
**** I would never have thought so soon when it was said, this or that’s coming with the routine. There are situations and moments that you have to be through several times. You can not learn routine. She comes, and then you can appreciate them.
On new and third studs, this means that new will remain for many years and it does not look good for ter stoves?
****I dont know. But I told Manu that I wanted to stop with him, but that my bones would not join for so long. Manu is still draping the year he has exposed because of his midfoot break. The age does not matter anyway, it’s about performance and fitness. And until the EM 2024 in your own country, it is once again a good two years.
The goalkeepers behind it, Trapp with 31, Leno with 30 and Oliver Baumann with 31, all already have a 3 in their age. Threatens a goalkeeper problem in about five years of German football?
**** There is already a small delle threatens us. Alexander Nübel has developed well in Monaco. But at the moment no one urges directly after that could pure immediately. Of course, I see nübel, but he has to play to increase its level continuously. He has already lost one year.
Who are the representatives of the next generation? The goalkeepers of the U 21 whistled in the last game in mid-November 2021 against San Marino Nico Mantl, who plays in Salzburg, Noah Atubolu from the SC Freiburg and Luca Philipp from Hoffenheim.
****That is the point. In the same time we had at the same time behind new Leno, Ter Stegen, Trapp and Timo Horn, who aroused around the squares. Today we have no who is in the Bundesliga Stammkeeper. There could be problems on us.
Which young goalkeeper worldwide is you particularly interested?
**** Gianluigi Donnarumma is still young, but has already done a lot. He is very interested in me. KEPA from FC Chelsea is 27 years, on him never was properly set, which I’m sorry for him, because I hold him for a very good goalkeeper. I’m looking forward to the further approach of this two keepers.
Sport director is not my goal.
They were active over 40 years in football: What change is the most serious for the game of goalkeepers?
**** The back pass rule, even if it is forever. This offensive goalkeeping game, which came through Manuel Neuer in football. The tactical orientation with high defense series has strengthened this trend. Goalkeepers have to be well educated today, with Oliver Kahn or me that was not yet required. We were also able to play football, but the boys today beat the balls on the right as left. This holistic education needs today the goalkeeper. That’s why I understand this change in youth football that goalkeepers will be completely omitted in the first years, not. I do not get the meaning behind as a goalkeeper.
Klinsmann, Löw and Köpke after the World Cup 2006. Imago Images / Contrast
They were responsible for the goalkeepers at the Löws page for 17 years. When do you step back in football?
****Time will show. I have to talk to Jogi how long he needs a break… but he has to go back as a coach. Whether we do something together, is possible, but not yet discussed.
So your return in football is conceivable?
**** Under certain circumstances yes. But I would not do something with any chief coach who wants to get me as a goalkeeper coach; But with Jogi Löw or Jürgen Klinsmann but already, no question.
as a goalkeeper coach or other function?
**** That depends on what would be in demand. Also conceivable is the responsibility for the entire training of goalkeepers in one club or in a junior power center.
Also think about a whole other activity like sports director?
**** Sports director is not my goal. I also strive for the 1st FC Nuremberg no job.
Others will be president of the US at 79 years. Maybe you have completely different plans in your life?
**** No, president in a club is not considered at the moment. I’m trying to improve my handicap in the gulf.
What do you want yourself personally and at all for your round birthday?
**** That the war in Ukraine finally stops and in total in this world return peace again. And of course health.
Andreas Köpke hurt 59 times the gate of the German national team, with which he won the European Championship in England in 1996. In 1990 at the World Cup and the title win, he had remained without use. In 1993 he was elected to Germany’s footballer of the year. When Germany at the 2014 World Cup took the Gold Cup in Brazil, he belonged as a goalkeeper trainer to DFB delegation.