“One leg falls off, the other hurts”: Sports stars suffer from football

Before the Champions for Charity charity football game organized by him and Formula 2 driver Mick Schumacher, Nowitzki had a goalkeeper jersey made for safety reasons. Because he feels “so unfit” after retiring in April: “I can’t watch any sport at the moment and have eaten everything that came my way.” When the former national soccer goalkeeper Jens Lehmann had not yet appeared at kick-off, Nowitzki took the opportunity to “let the others run for me”. Most of the time the 2,13 meter tall Nowitzki stood in goal. The few meters in the remaining minutes were apparently too much for his size 54 feet in football shoes. He struggled with blisters.

Heinrich Popow could sympathize with that. The two-time Paralympic champion's foot was red all over - and it's his only one, as he emphasized with a smile. “Sport is hard,” said Popow, who ended his career last year: “One leg is gone and the other hurts endlessly.”

Dirk Nowitzki gave the goalkeeper. © AFP / INA FASSBENDER

Many sports stars felt the same way as Nowitzki and Popow on Sunday. With varying levels of fitness, they took part in the kick for a good cause. And afterwards we were amazed at how demanding football can be. “It was much more strenuous than I imagined,” said NHL shooting star Leon Draisaitl. Ice hockey star Draisaitl has problems with the playing field The 23-year-old was particularly troubled by the 7140 square meter playing field - the ice surfaces in the North American professional ice hockey league only cover around 1500 square meters. “It was nice to see how difficult it is with coordination and the long distances,” said Draisaitl. And then stated: “At the age of eight, I even stopped playing ice hockey for a year to play football. Today you saw that I’m not the greatest talent.”

Some of the stars from different sports did not do badly in the game with ex-footballers such as Arne Friedrich, Fredi Bobic or Ulf Kirsten, as former national goalkeeper Lehmann patronizingly noted. “Fabian Hambüchen hit some nice points. Sven Hannawald and Matthias Steiner played great, Dirk Nowitzki also did well in goal," Lehmann said: "And Mick Schumacher was very hard-working. A real little dribbler.” Nowitzki with bad luck The fact that they probably wouldn't have become stars through football was shown not least by a penalty that Nowitzki hit the crossbar. “That was definitely one of the better penalties in my career,” said Dirkules with a smile. And thought about the game in Mainz two years ago, when he hit a penalty into the clouds. But Lehmann also had an explanation for this: “He’s used to goals that hang around three meters high.”

The proceeds from the charity game in honor of Michael Schumacher will benefit the Keep Fighting Foundation, once founded by the Formula 1 record world champion, and the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation.

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“One leg falls off, the other hurts”: Sports stars suffer from football

Dirk Nowitzki and Mick Schumacher invited people to the charity game. And numerous stars from various sports played for a good cause. And they realized – sometimes painfully – that football is not as easy as it seems.

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