A little boy in the Musiala jersey wants to know exactly: “What is the Contento?” he asks his friend, who, however, does not answer. The question cannot be answered that clearly, after all, three Contentos will play in FC Aschheim’s opening game against SK Srbija Munich on Friday, and the fourth will be on the sidelines as a coach.
Diego Contento, 33, the former full-back at FC Bayern Munich, has ended his professional career, but he continues to play football – now in the seventh division, the district league. He does this with his three brothers. It is a big deal for amateur football in the Munich area that a Champions League winner is now playing in the district league. The relevant Internet portals have spread the news on a grand scale. And yet the response was limited this Friday: Only about 120 spectators came to the pretty sports park, which FC Bayern youth and women’s teams used to use as an alternative venue.
There are no Contento chants, the former professional is not followed by a horde of autograph hunters, only a boy asks him for a selfie after the game. Diego proves that he is of course a difference player in this league. He is the initiator of the first two Aschheim goals: when it was 1-0 just before the break, he hit a wide free kick high on the goal of the Munich Serbs, the goalkeeper slapped the ball away, Aschheim followed twice, the first shot landed on the crossbar, the second is in. A quarter of an hour before the end, Contento got out a corner ball in an extremely savvy way, and Falk Schubert benefited from the 1-0, scoring his second goal as a result of the standard situation.
Diego Contento is the player of the game, you can see that especially in the second half: as soon as he picks up the pace, the opponents cannot follow. But he also has to take it, once a defender nasty extends his leg. But Diego Armando Valentin Contento doesn’t make a big fuss. He wears shirt number 90, he was born in 1990, in 1990 the family’s favorite club, SSC Napoli, celebrated the last Italian championship title before that this summer. Back then with the great Maradona. Diego Armando – no coincidence, of course.
Immediately after the 2-0 he is substituted – and then you can see how much he identifies with the project: he coaches together with his older brother Vincenzo and is the first to congratulate the shooter of the final 3-0, Alessandro de Marco, across across the field. After the final whistle he was right in the middle of the group of players, while Vincenzo praised his team: “We showed character and were patient,” he exclaims enthusiastically. The mood is exuberant, the chairmen Matthias Trägner and Thomas Preschel also celebrate and emphasize that Diego’s involvement will not change the fact that FC Aschheim should remain down-to-earth and family.
Contento’s older brother Enzo is the player-coach, with Alessandro and Domenico playing on the wings
But of course the club bosses are now euphoric about the season, the same applies to the brothers: “It’s really a cool story, I’m looking forward to the adventure,” says Vincenzo, 40, the player-coach. “Enzo”, as everyone calls him, comments smugly on the fact that he is now supposed to instruct his three younger brothers in sports: “If I haven’t been able to raise them from an early age, how am I supposed to succeed now?” He says – and laughs uproariously.
He himself only wants to actively intervene when there is a shortage of personnel, he says. “The player’s pass is still with the club, but we’re also really well positioned across the board.” The medium-term goal is promotion to the national league. “You always have goals, we want to rebuild the club from a young age.” But there is no time pressure at all.
His brother Diego should play a central role – in the truest sense of the word, because while his other two brothers Alessandro, 23, and Domenico, 38, occupy the outer positions in the back four, the long-time professional is not for his former regular position intended as a left defender at Bayern Munich. At the start of the league he starts as a six and even plays one position further up in the second half. “When I was young I played in central midfield and as a winger. I just want to score goals again,” says the 33-year-old.
In Bordeaux Diego trained under Willy Sagnol, in Düsseldorf “it wasn’t true”
In his career, he rarely managed to do that. There were only five goals in his professional career, two of them for the second team of FC Bayern in the third division and three for the traditional French club Girondins Bordeaux, with whom he was under contract for four years after leaving Munich in 2014. “Those were four great years after the golden days at FC Bayern,” he says in retrospect. “The city is outstanding, I played a lot and initially had a coach in Willy Sagnol who I already knew from Munich.” Contento is concerned that the six-time French champions are now starting their second second division season in a row: “Bordeaux have to go back up just because of the great fans and the stadium.”
Two years at Fortuna Düsseldorf followed, which started badly: At the beginning of the season in the summer of 2018, Diego Contento tore a cruciate ligament. When he was fit again for the following season, he failed in an attempt to gain a regular place under coaches Friedhelm Funkel and later Uwe Rösler, and spent the whole year on the bench and in the stands. “I would have loved to have helped Fortuna in the Bundesliga relegation battle back then, but sometimes it’s just not true.”
Open detailed view
Legends among themselves: Diego Contento with Bastian Schweinsteiger and Claudio Pizarro (from right) during FC Bayern’s victory in the new edition of the 2013 Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund a few days ago.
(Photo: Mladen Lackovic/Imago)
After his professional career, he helps his wife Jessica with her online tutoring portal, which now works with around 70 percent of professional clubs: tutors there support young footballers who have problems with the subject matter. Diego Contento is now doing his first coaching license, he is particularly interested in scouting. He can imagine getting more involved here in the future. The 33-year-old also represents FC Bayern at events with sponsors, he plays in the club’s team of legends and was most recently in the 2013 team’s anniversary game against Dortmund, which the Munich team around Schweinsteiger, Pizarro, Maakay and Dante as well as won the 2013 Champions League final 2-1.
When he thinks back to the game at Wembley ten years ago, he gushes, even if he didn’t play at all – in contrast to the lost “Finale dahoam” a year earlier against Chelsea, in which he played 120 minutes stood the place. “The defeat back then was tough, but it made us stronger,” Contento sums up. After the triple victory, he was with the team “in all Munich clubs”. “We didn’t have to pay admission anywhere,” he says with a laugh. It is unlikely that this will also be the case if he were to be promoted to the Landesliga. He will first have to try whether a promotion with his brothers and FC Aschheim can be celebrated in a similar way.
