With Sebastian Rode, Eintracht loses more than their captain after the season. This became clear once again on Tuesday at a press conference with midfielder and sports director Markus Krösche. The good news: In the medium term, the 33-year-old is expected to remain with the club in another role.
Frankfurt’s Sebastian Rode hopes that he can say goodbye to the Eintracht fans properly. IMAGO/Jan Huebner
Rode hobbled into the press room on crutches five days after his knee arthroscopy. The tears that he shed after the exit from the Conference League and the new knee injury have now dried. During the half-hour appointment, the captain presented himself as ever: down-to-earth, combative and reflective.
Anyone who has gotten up again and again over the years after so many, often serious, injuries and operations is not burying their head in the sand now. “I look positively into the future and hope that I can help the team again,” says Rode and speaks of a “new beginning”. His “big goal” is to get a few minutes on matchday 34 against Leipzig to say a proper goodbye to the fans. The surgeon even signaled to him that he would have no concerns even with three missions over 90 minutes. “Then my knee won’t blow up in my face,” says Rode. But first we have to wait and see how the rehab goes.
Rode is looking forward to some distance and a year with the family
Despite the decision to end his career a long time ago, he has not yet made any long-term plans, but one thing is clear: “I will spend at least a year with the family and also gain some distance from the fast-moving football business.” Often enough he had to suffer in rehab while his colleagues were able to enjoy their summer vacation. “So I’m going to enjoy it a lot,” says Rode. At the same time, he suspects that saying goodbye to everyday life as a professional footballer won’t be easy: “Since I was four years old, everything has basically revolved around football. So it won’t be easy to make this transition.”
Together with his teammates Jens Grahl and Timothy Chandler, he acquired the “B+ coaching license” last year. However, it remains to be seen whether he will later stand on the sidelines gesticulating wildly. “When time comes, advice comes,” says the 33-year-old. He wants to let everything happen to him, but also says: “I don’t think it will take me away from football completely. I want to stay with Eintracht in some form.”
Krösche wants that too. “We would of course like to keep him with us after his career. He is predestined to be an ambassador for Eintracht Frankfurt. But it is also about him helping us with his know-how and experience in operations,” says the sports director. He knows: “Players like Seppl are very rare anymore.” Rode is what one calls an identification figure. You cannot replace such a personality at the push of a button.
Identification figures are becoming a rarity
Identification is a lengthy process and the path to the hearts of fans is often difficult. Rode played for Eintracht from 2010 to 2014, then moved to Bayern and returned to the Main from Borussia Dortmund in January 2019. The two championships with Bayern and the cup victories with Munich and BVB are outshone by the Europa League victory with Eintracht. Rode speaks of his “career highlight”.
Krösche would like to see players continue to play for Eintracht for “five, six, seven years” or longer in the future. “That would mean that we are also successful in sport and that players no longer look for the next step elsewhere. We want to achieve that.” It won’t be easy. Rode also feels that something has changed in professional football; there are fewer identification figures than before. Thanks to the Internet and social networks, “everything has become much faster,” there are consultants with “certain interests,” in short: there will be fewer and fewer players who play for a club for ten years or longer. “I’m glad to have been there at a time when things were a little different,” said the midfielder.
“I try to create a different perspective”
In the past, Matthias Sammer and Heiko Herrlich “always spoke about humility” in the junior national team, says Rode. That shaped him. Being a professional footballer is a “privilege” and the players are doing very, very well. “There are many people who are much worse off. My social commitments also help me to come down to earth again and again. I see the suffering that other people have. Such injuries are trivial, even if they are for yourself “It’s not that easy. That’s how I’ve always approached it: with the courage and hope that everything will be okay again. That’s how it is now,” explains Rode. Despite all the success and millions, he still seems as grounded today as he did at the beginning of his career. Like the nice guy from the neighborhood, not like a star. Not many can do that.
These character traits help him not to struggle too much with his many injuries. “What if?” This question definitely arises with Rode. As a tireless fighter, strategist and driver, he was at times one of the best midfielders in the country. “Perhaps I could have played an international match if I had been completely healthy or had had one less injury,” reflects Rode. Striving for something higher is part of human nature. He questions this: “I’m trying to create a different perspective.”
He wants a society without envy of others. You should value health, family and friends and sometimes be satisfied with what you have. A healthy attitude from the father of the family. “I’m very, very happy with my career,” he says. It’s taken away from him. In Eintracht’s history there were certainly some players with more shine, such as Jürgen Grabowski or Jay-Jay Okocha, but Rode can also be a shining role model for generations. This is evidenced not least by his blood-stained jersey from the 2022 Europa League final, which is on display in a display case in the Eintracht Museum.
2024-03-05 19:30:00
#Identification #figure #Rode #perspective #life
