“Respect flutes”: Sebastian Rode about the farewell of Kevin Trapp from Frankfurt

I am diplomatic: everyone does it in their own way. I could also have said: of course mine (laughs). But I hardly played in my last year due to injury reasons. So far, Evacht has been able to absorb every departure well. It will now be interesting to see how the young goalkeeper Kauã Santos will develop and how the new goalkeeper Michael Zetterer will fit. Then you will be able to assess what the Kevin’s departure means for harmony.

Does Eintracht underestimate Kevin Trapp’s departure to Paris?

Sports director Markus Krösche always has a clear plan. I am always a little divided. As long as it runs sporty, no rooster crows afterwards. If the team slides into the crisis in terms of sport, you need seasoned players who have the experience of dealing with it. Eintracht has had a relatively few crises in recent years. In the event of success, young players can grow better and better. If things go on like this, Kauã Santos will also develop great, hardly make any mistakes, and nobody will whine big Kevin at some point. Overall, I think it’s a shame that there are only three people from the Europa League winning team: Ansgar Knauff, Timothy Chandler and Jens Grahl.

Is that a good or bad sign for the club?

Eintracht has set itself the task of developing many young players well and then selling expensive. She is getting that very quickly at the moment. Randal Kolo Muani and Willian Pacho were only one year in Frankfurt, Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitiké one and a half. From their market value, everyone has increased so enormously that they quickly became interesting for the absolute top clubs. On the other hand, I still find it nice when I look at Bayern Munich and see today, how many players I have played together. And that was ten years ago. Or Real Madrid: The core of the successful team was there for at least eight years, Toni Kroos and Luka Modrić. So you can also be successful if you don’t constantly replace the team.

Can a high fluctuation of important players become a problem at some point?

Definitely. Today, Eintracht has to choose the category to oblige players that cost 20 or 30 million euros. With ten million euro transfers, something can go wrong, so it doesn’t hurt. Players for 20 or 30 million euros have to perform in the field to continue to have this success as a club. So it can go in the other direction. But as long as you are successful, you can basically do what you want. Then everyone pulls along. However, if half of the team changes and there is a certain success, then the fan will no longer be able to identify with the players. The fans want to have a recognition value – players who are committed to Eintracht Frankfurt in the long term.

Is that aware of the board at Eintracht Frankfurt to the necessary?

The board does an excellent job. This is aware of the people involved. It is going incredibly well for harmony. If you can sell players every year for 80, 90 million euros, then they are sums that you have to take as a club. Only in the crisis the true face shows. Fortunately, it didn’t exist in Frankfurt yet.

What will the team be missing the most without their captain Kevin Trapp?

Kevin is also an extremely important liaison player in the cabin. He speaks many languages and thus holds the groups together. His progress is a huge loss. In addition, there is his experience and class as a goalkeeper. It was always relying on him.

Can you understand his decision to leave Eintracht?

In any case. I was also in contact with him. If you basically get said that after all these years you will only be number two in the future, I can understand if Kevin accepts the three -year offer from Paris. He told me that he would also sit on the bench if he had had the option of receiving a longer contract beyond 2026 at Eintracht. But with all the respect of his person, I don’t quite agree: because Trappo is also someone who wants to play. If he can help shape the ambitious project in Paris, this is a huge thing for him and a huge task.

Kevin Trapp has always behaved exemplary in public. Even at the time when he had to read in the previous season in certain media that he lost the status number one. Wasn’t he angry that he was not shown the respect for him that he actually deserved?

I also believe that such a player who has been responsible for the success of the team over the years has probably wanted a different departure. Now he doesn’t like Makoto and I end his career with his great love.

I think that he would also like to say goodbye to Makoto and I in the Waldstadion. But Trappo is a world man. Maybe we will also see him as a player in the United States in a few years.

Certainly. In the past, this fast -moving person did not exist in the form of today. I find it absurd what happened to Marc-André Ter Stegen in Barcelona. He held his bones for Barça for ten years. Now you want to get him away because of whatever reasons. He never let anything come. For me, respect for deserved players is completely flute. Or Gianluigi Donnarumma near Paris ST-Germain, which was extremely important for the club. Without him, the Parisians might not have won the Champions League. But who should go away overnight because someone else comes. The club side often scolded the players who want to go away. But I also wish from the clubs that they show respect for the players and exercise fair play. Finally, there are contracts concluded with them. The players are also the capital of the clubs.

Can football be inhumane?

Definitely. Starting with the so -called training groups two like in Hoffenheim and how it was more and more school at other clubs afterwards. There are many examples in which players have been motored away.

Did you also have to experience something like that that you have added a certain behavior and that you didn’t feel well treated?

At some point I was also in a felt training group two in Dortmund. I also put myself back on my self -confidence and no longer felt important. That was the only time in my career. You really have to find a way to deal with it. Every player wants to feel important in the team in a certain way. Football also takes place in the head. Many have a lot of talent. Only if you don’t have self -confidence does it don’t work on the pitch.

Can people break from it?

Yes, of course. If you then have no environment that catches you, it will be difficult. Unless you have this strength to deal with it yourself. There are certainly moments when players are broken at the circumstances because of the disrespectful way of dealing with them.

Are young players mentally prepared for difficult moments in their career?

I think that is still not the case. Even if the staff at the clubs with potential coaches and so on. It is still very important to you as a personality, whether you are strong enough to cope in this shark tank. If you don’t perform as a player at the crucial moment, you will quickly be gone.

What do you mean? How many football professionals are it possible at an upper level of performance mentally?

I believe that there are a large number of players who are not to see that they suffer mentally. And how nervous they are before playing. That are difficult to cope with fans or the backdrop. However, this is not noticeable because they usually pull through their thing well. And afterwards they disappear from the public eye to the next game.

How many players are there with excessive self -confidence?

Our Timothy Chandler at Eintracht is one (laughs). The Timmy Chandler’s world that nobody and nothing can harm – regardless of whether they play in front of 100,000 spectators or only five. Seriously: I would say that it is very few. Everyone has to wear a certain package and a certain nervousness that you have to have. But who go into play with the attitude comes out what you want, there are few.

Can players afford themselves from a certain level if they have to assert themselves in the competition?

Clear. As for self -doubt and self -criticism, everyone should have a healthy attitude. This is also important with regard to dealing with the teammates. I like to take Joshua Kimmich as an example who has switched to Bayern Munich in the 2015 season in the 2015 season. Even then, he was very stable from his self -confidence. He immediately said: I can keep up with them. Respect yes, but not awe or fear. He has shown this all the years – and this stark ambition, which he still has today. In the top it makes the difference again. Also with Franck Ribéry or Arjen Robben: There was no better one than themselves. In retrospect for my time at Bayern, I have to say: If the players went on the field, these were machines. They were so devoured by ambition to want to win this game. I never experienced that in this form. Fun in the cabin, yes. But as soon as the foot was on the training ground or on the field, 110 percent were given.

What did you take from your time in Munich?

I also internalized it for myself. I have always awarded me that I also gave 110 percent in training. Then I switched to Dortmund, where there are only national players in the squad. But the presented mentality at Bayern was another.

After your career end in the summer of 2024, you are in a football retirement. Where do you live your great ambition from profit now?

Difficult. I could now say that I don’t let my children win when playing (laughs). No, it’s not that bad. It is now really this exploratory on the bike, on the mountain bike. But you have no duel, you are alone with yourself. And I play a paddle tennis. I already have this competition – in the duel with our former striker Alex Meier, for example, I always want to win. We have fun, tease each other. If I hadn’t found this compensation, the situation would be difficult for me.

Do you miss this ambition that you had to have as a successful football professional?

You like to get along to a certain age. At some point you notice that now it will be demanding to keep up with the young players. But if you lived on this competition from an early age, had this adrenaline output week after week, then you have to be able to deal well with no longer having it.

Do you get adrenaline in other ways today?

It is difficult to describe. This powers on the mountain bike already gives me this feeling – for example, driven down a route where you have to swallow when you jump over a stone. Then a certain adrenaline rises in you. But I get along very well with my career end. I no longer need this recognition every day. Some probably have a problem with it. I have a family that gives me a certain everyday life. I am very well.

You haven’t got on your wife as a retiree yet?

I think she has no reason to complain.