Young soccer talent announces the end of his career on Youtube

Sidney Friede has everything that makes him a great football talent. He is tech-savvy, fast, dangerous on goals. At the age of 15 he made it to the Hertha BSC Berlin youth academy. He is so good that he is regularly appointed to the selection teams of the DFB. Nothing seems to stand in the way of a professional career.

But his body doesn’t play along. He has had problems with his right ankle since he was 17. Like many other professionals, it is his weak point. Other injuries are added later, in the end it is a broken knee that will force him to give up in May 2021. The injury that marked the end of his career for Friede was a result of his damaged ankle. Doctors advise the now 23-year-old to end his career, otherwise there is a risk that he will suffer permanent damage.

The first injury as a professional is a shock

It’s a shock that Peace tries to take sporty. You get that impression when you look at the YouTube video that he published for the decisive event. Because the young football professional is just as passionate about Youtuber who regularly posts clips. And so he used the medium to provide information in just under 27 minutes about his career, which hit him deeply: “I sometimes lay in bed and cried,” he says.

In the clip, Friede vividly reports on the vicious circle of injuries and new hope. Every time since he was promoted to the professional Hertha BSC team at the age of 19, he has started the season full of hope, only to suffer another setback: “You don’t know what that does to your head.”

Then what he has known and feared for a long time happens. He buckles and has to sit out for three months. With the Hertha professionals, he can then not prevail, he missed the connection. But the former Herthan Bernd Storck brings the highly talented to Royal Mouscron in Belgium. It is a loan shop, and Friede is finally making his professional debut in Belgium. After ten successful missions, bad luck comes back. He injured his hip and had to take another three months off.

Klinsmann sorts him out

Back at Hertha, he is preparing well. He was appointed to the squad twice at the beginning of the season, but was not used. He won’t play in the Bundesliga at all, which is why hardly anyone knows him here. Because the next injury to the ankle follows. No matter how much he strengthens the malade joint with tape, he kinks over and over again. Another break. The new coach at Hertha is called Jürgen Klinsmann, and he sorts him out.

The next station is called Wehen Wiesbaden, 2nd division. The club is in the middle of a relegation battle. In disarming honesty, the fine technician Friedin said in his clip: “I didn’t know that mainly long balls are played there.” During the Corona break in spring 2020, he was finally informed that they needed aggressive players with “greed and mentality”. In other words, they want professionals who are first line to run and fight. Peace was never that type of player. He asks why they brought him in the first place: “I was never a player who knocked over others”. He calls it a “misunderstanding”. He only mentions the renewed ankle injury in passing.

Again it is Bernd Storck who offers him a perspective. This time he guides him to DAC Dunajska Streda in Slovakia. At the beginning things are going well – as in Belgium. His new team achieved nine wins at the start of the season, a record for the Slovak league. “I finally wanted to play a season where I could play thirty games and gain experience,” said Friede.

Then the meniscus tears

But the next injury is too much. In a normal duel during training, the meniscus tears. He doesn’t want to admit it. “First I lay in bed and cried.” After a week he reports back to training. “I’ll come out on the pitch at 9.55 am. Training starts at ten o’clock: a pass and – puff, I couldn’t run anymore! Like a week before.” He should go to rehab for at least four weeks. But the club is putting pressure on, Friede should play again as quickly as possible because he’s so good. The rehab will be cut. After two weeks, he does squats with 60 kilograms.

Finally he is back on the field and plays. But it’s not the same as it used to be. “But I always noticed that there was a blockage in my head.” He knows that with certain movements he will be in pain. So he torments himself through training for long weeks until the pain finally comes back. And this time the time has come: the doctors tell him very clearly that he will suffer consequential damage if he continues to play football. His knee can’t take the strain. Friede thinks of coaches he has met and who have continued their careers despite serious injuries. “It’s not nice when you can no longer walk normally in old age.”

So he made his decision and ended his career at the age of 23 after long discussions with parents and friends. He warmly thanks his parents, especially his mother, who supported him. He turns to DAC supporters who cover him with hateful comments because they think he is a simulator. He thanks all those who have given him courage and consolation. And he doesn’t want to spend a lot of time mourning his professional football career. Go on, is the message to his audience.

And now? Peace will continue to be active as a Youtuber. After all, he still has a lot to tell from his short career as a professional footballer: “I can still tell a lot about details that normal people don’t know – what happens in football. Because a lot, a lot of shit happens there.”

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