End of career on 33rd birthday
Jonas Hector never really loved professional football
05/14/2023, 4:25 p.m
A bit of gardening, time with the family, off to the stadium – this is how Jonas Hector will spend his weekends in the future. The 1. FC Köln footballer will soon be retiring. In an interview, the soon to be 33-year-old says why life as a professional hasn’t given him any fulfillment.
In his first newspaper interview in many years, Jonas Hector from 1. FC Köln explained the reasons for his unusually early retirement from professional football at the age of 33. When asked if he was “ever a thoroughly happy professional”, the former national player answered in an interview with the magazine “11Freunde”: “If I think back to everything, I have to say: No.”
Now he no longer feels like “the public that you inevitably have to face as a professional, the constant pressure”. At FC, the team has “never been in calm waters in recent years”. “I don’t want to live feeling like I’m always struggling to survive, I want to spend Saturday gardening, then go to the stadium and see things from a neutral point of view,” he said.
After the grueling relegation in 2021, he thought about it for the first time, after which he became a father, which changed his view again, said the 43-time national player. There were also private strokes of fate. After which he had not yet thought of resigning. “But that was when I retired from the national team. I don’t want to deny that there is a connection.”
Hector also confirmed that national coach Hansi Flick wanted to persuade him to make a comeback for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He declined. “Two years earlier I had questioned the sense of international matches and I came to the conclusion that nothing had changed in my attitude,” said the Saarland native.
Hector, who has been playing for 1. FC Köln since 2010, will play his last professional game on his 33rd birthday on May 27 against FC Bayern Munich. After that he looks forward to “free weekends”, he said: “I see myself as a father watching his child on the sports field – a nice thought”. A comeback is unlikely, but cannot be ruled out: “I can’t imagine it, but in football you should never say ‘never’.”