National player has crowds of fans
Social media giant Krick just wants to play
April 2, 2024, 12:29 p.m
He’s already a cup winner, Tobias Krick has his eyes on the German championship title with the BR Volleys – and then the Olympic Games will follow. The volleyball player is a master of his sport and, at 2.13 meters, a true giant. He’s like that in the social media world too.
Tobias Krick takes a run, climbs up in slow motion, smashes the ball over the net with force – and is followed by five million people. While the national volleyball player is currently reaching for his first German championship title and dreams of the Olympics, he is penetrating the spheres of many a football star with videos like this on the social media platform TikTok.
“Follow me if you’re shorter than me,” Krick writes in his profile, which given his height of 2.13 meters should apply to quite a few people. Five million users have apparently already complied with the request, for comparison: around eight million fans follow 2014 world champion Toni Kroos (8.1) and Barça striker Robert Lewandowski (7.8), Bayern professional Thomas Müller (4.3 ) and Jamal Musiala (1.6) easily surpasses Krick.
The BR Volleys middle blocker says he started doing it at the end of 2019: “For me, it’s a creative outlet alongside volleyball. I really enjoy editing videos and bringing the sport a little closer to people.”
Clip with 26 million views
One sporty highlight clip follows the next on his profile, but you can also find self-ironic sequences in which the 25-year-old addresses user comments or his height, for example. The short videos have several thousand views, two of the top clips even have more than 18 and 26 million. He is also successful on Instagram with a million followers.
Krick takes such numbers calmly: “Of course I was a little more impressed at the beginning when a video got a few more views. But you get used to it.” His focus is on the field anyway – and that’s where he’s currently playing for his first German championship title with Berlin. Krick won the DVV Cup with volleys four weeks ago.
A trophy that was denied him during his time at United Volleys Frankfurt. The project was completely geared towards him. His father Jörg Krick, as an investor and managing director, had created the Bundesliga club specifically for his son. Tobias Krick was a mega-talent early on and was able to gain Bundesliga experience at just 16 years old. When the Hessians became cup winners in 2021, Krick had just moved on to Italy. In the volleyball mecca he played for Cisterna and Modena before returning to the Bundesliga.
Olympics again after a long time
Possibly winning the championship in his first season with Berlin would “mean a lot” for him personally, says Krick. On Wednesday (7.30 p.m./dyn) If he could get one step closer to this goal, with another win the Volleys would win the semi-final series against SVG Lüneburg (2-0).
And then there is the dream of the Olympic Games. With the national team around DVV star Georg Grozer, Krick impressively bought his ticket to Paris last fall. At that moment, “a lot of pressure was relieved,” reports Krick, because after all, it had been twelve years since the last time the German men took part in the Olympics. “From a sporting perspective, it actually means everything to me,” says Krick: “It’s definitely the goal to go to Paris with the team.” Before that, the next national title should work.