1. FC Köln: Jonas Hector gives deep insights

Jonas Hector from 1. FC Köln will end his career after the current season. In an interview, the 32-year-old has now given deep insights into his inner life as a professional.

If all goes well, Hector will make his last professional appearance on his 33rd birthday: in Effzeh’s home game against FC Bayern Munich. The culmination of a 13-year career with over 400 competitive games for the billy goats.

Hector doesn’t find it difficult to say goodbye. In an interview with 11friends the left-back was asked if he had ever been a thoroughly happy professional in his career. Hector’s telling answer: “If I think back to everything, I have to say: No.”

The reasons for the end of his career were correspondingly simple: “Because I just don’t feel like doing certain things anymore and would like to use the time differently in the future,” emphasized Hector. He no longer feels like “the public that you inevitably have to face as a professional, the constant pressure. At FC we have never been in calm waters in recent years. I no longer want to live with the feeling of constantly surviving to fight.”

The pressure at Effzeh increased steadily during this time. “As the responsibilities increased as a leader and later as a captain, I started to worry more,” revealed Hector. In 2018 “everything fell apart. From then on it practically didn’t let me go.” 1. FC Köln were relegated, and since then this fear has not left him: “It’s no secret that a club like 1. FC Köln gets into financial difficulties when that happens. Then it’s about extending contracts and jobs.”

Jonas Hector wanted to hand over the captain’s armband at 1. FC Köln

In addition, his advisor Rainer Derber and his brother Lucas died in 2020. In this phase he “sought professional help. My brother and Rainer were among the people who were closest to me because they were very involved in the most successful phase. I very quickly realized how big this loss was and why I tried to counteract it.”

In the 2020/21 season, Effzeh saved himself from being relegated to the second division in the relegation against Holstein Kiel. There were “first thoughts” about the end of the career. He would also have liked to give up the captain’s armband, but coach Steffen Baumgart talked him out of it. He “signaled to have my back in every respect and also to keep unpleasant things away from me. That’s why I said yes,” says Hector.

After his departure, he is looking forward to free weekends, among other things: He wants to “devote himself to gardening on Saturdays, then stroll relaxed into the stadium and look at things from a neutral perspective.”