Hinterher it was like always when a play-off series in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) ends. Then all the skirmishes are forgotten, the players line up in turn, shake hands with opponents. Those who know each other better stop for a moment, a few nice words, a hug. Sebastian Furchner experienced that again on Sunday when his Grizzlies Wolfsburg also lost the third semi-final against Red Bull Munich and were eliminated. But something was different: Furchner walked across the ice in civilian clothes. And this time there were a lot of hugs, even the referees drove up. Because on Sunday his career was over.
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Of course, that was not the end the 39-year-old had hoped for. Watching hurt as it ends in the semifinals. The grizzlies wanted to be champions. Especially for Furchner, the greatest player in their history. For 14 years, the Allgäu wore the jersey of Lower Saxony, was captain and one of the reasons why a promoted team from ice hockey no man’s land became a DEL top team that made it to the final four times. Furchner himself – previously twice in the final with Cologne – had the trophy in mind six times, but the others cheered each time.
Finally it should finally work. Although Furchner had extended until 2023 in December, the pain got worse again in February. He’s been struggling with them since 2015. When he took off his skates after a game, several toes were numb, and “parts of my foot and my calves burned like fire,” he recalls. A nervous problem that he got under control sometimes better, sometimes worse. Now it was no longer possible, after the season is over, he announced. So the fans hung a banner behind the goal for the first play-off game: “We for you. you for us. All for Furchi!” But a short time later he was lying unconscious on the ground, after a check he had banged his head in front of the gang.
It’s been two and a half weeks. Today he is fine except for a headache. “I’m glad nothing more happened,” says Furchner, who only woke up in the ambulance and thought: “Something bad must have happened. Then I moved my fingers and feet and said to myself: Then it can’t be that bad.” If the Grizzlies had reached the final, he might have played again.
But now it’s over what he himself has “not yet processed”. After all, he was in the DEL for 20 years, played 1119 games, scored 302 goals – he is in second and third place in the all-time leaderboards. There are also world championships and the Olympics. Although he “always came about fitness and body, less about talent,” as he says. Furchner wasn’t for the gallery, a worker, fast, biting.
That’s how it was at home at ESV Kaufbeuren. Then in 2001 a call came from Bremerhaven. That’s when his mother first opened the school atlas, and when she discovered Bremerhaven, she started to cry. The boy so far away. Furchner, then 19, went anyway, was now the Bavarian on the North Sea. “When I said ‘Grüß Gott’, they looked at me like an alien.”
But he felt at home quickly, won the second division title and met his future wife. After just one year, the Kölner Haie came knocking. Another new world. Rhineland, metropolis, DEL, modern arena. According to Furchner, “a quantum leap, but we quickly felt comfortable”. Also sporty: the finals, the derbies against Dusseldorf. “The biggest thing was with Cologne on Brehmstrasse. Two and a half hours earlier you were greeted with 3,000 middle fingers.”
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In 2008 we went to Wolfsburg, the club had only been in the DEL for a year. “My last game in Cologne was in front of 18,500 spectators, at the first game in Wolfsburg there were six people in the hall during the warm-up. That’s when I thought to myself: Oh God, what have I done?” Sportingly it was tough at first, Furchner immediately signed again in Cologne and sought talks with Wolfsburg’s manager Charly Fliegauf. But he said: Wait until Christmas, do you still want to leave then, let’s talk.
The conversation never took place. Furchner settled in quickly, canceled again with the Cologne team, got better and better like the whole Wolfsburg team and became the face of the club. But despite the four finals (most recently in 2021), it was never enough for the DEL title. He cannot hide the fact that “something is missing”. But who knows what’s to come? He stays in the club, should assist Fliegauf in the future. “In this way I can continue to help that we win the trophy at some point. If not on skates, then maybe in a suit.”
