It’s coming slowly. At first I had to calmly process all the impressions. There was a lot going on in me right after the final whistle, I didn’t even notice a lot. I only see that now when I look at the video snippets that are circulating on the internet. Sometimes I sit on the coach and shed a tear or two.
I must confess that I refrained from walking the streets. I wanted to figure that out with myself first, so I preferred the trip to the riding stables with my family to the city festival. But you noticed right after the game how the party was going. How relieved everyone was when it was clear after 21 years that we were German champions again.
To be honest, I didn’t take that much with me because I went straight to the youth national team. That was more important to me as captain at the time, so I watched a lot of the celebrations on TV. You can see how little I valued that. It’s completely different now, also because I have a completely different share of the success.
That wasn’t without problems. I had to learn to deal with sponsors and journalists who viewed me critically. And I didn’t want any of that at all, because the coaching job can be such a short-lived thing and I actually came from youth coordination. It wasn’t easy, but it shaped me.
Rather less. My ego is not exactly small. But there were times when we were laughed at as dwarf handball. When things didn’t work out and we sat together in the executive committee and talked about the resignation of the management. But that would have been too easy for me. I wanted to show everyone that what I had in mind worked. That my concept of continuity works.
