For more than 16 years Nils Petersen stood for goals and records, but also a very open and always friendly manner. Also on the field. In the big kicker interview (Monday edition), the Bundesliga joker king reveals who wasn’t nice to him and what opponent behavior he was able to pull himself off of.
Nils Petersen on his departure from Freiburg. IMAGO/Jöran Steinsiek
490 competitive games and 178 goals for Jena, Cottbus, Bayern, Bremen and Freiburg, plus two goalless international matches and six Olympic appearances and goals for Germany – Petersen has seen and achieved a lot in his active career from February 2007 to summer 2023, but never seriously clashed with an opponent. “Of course there were differences of opinion, but no arguments. I even claim to have been one of the nicest opponents,” says Petersen with a laugh in the big kicker interview (Monday edition).
Nevertheless, not all opponents met him with excessive friendliness. Who were the most uncomfortable? “Toni Rüdiger was very uncomfortable in his early days in Stuttgart, he also wanted to verbally unsettle him or gave me a hand, even though the ball was somewhere else. This annoying combined with hard defending is also a bit his trademark,” says Petersen about the national player from Real Madrid, who wore the VfB shirt from 2011 to 2015.
It was difficult for me against physical opponents.
Another central defender troubled Petersen during his time in Bremen. “When I was in Assani Lukimya’s clutches in training, I just couldn’t avoid it. Sometimes I get desperate in duels,” says Petersen and generally admits: “It was difficult for me against physically strong opponents.”
Which of course did not go unnoticed by this species in direct duels and also made Petersen popular on the field. “It was funny and actually not good that I often had the feeling in training that our defenders absolutely wanted to play against me,” says Petersen and, as usual, names the reason frankly: his weaknesses: “I just didn’t hurt anyone, I didn’t run away from anyone , just always had my moments in front of goal.”
Schlotterbeck? “He still holds that against me”
His extraordinary closing strength with both feet is often neglected in Petersen’s sometimes modest and self-critical self-analyses, but at the same time it was the most effective weapon to get back at some not-so-nice defenders. “I could pull myself up on it when I was annoyed,” explains Petersen and tells an anecdote from his last years in Freiburg: “I can remember a final training session in Freiburg when Nico Schlotterbeck was still very young, but was in the senior team and was due to start the next day. He was very confident even then and really wanted to cover for set pieces.”
The Borussia Dortmund professional, who has meanwhile been promoted to the senior national team, did himself no favors with his choice of opponent. “I was particularly focused and scored two goals right away – and Nico was out of the starting XI. He still blames me for costing him this mission,” reports Petersen with a grin and puts aside this episode for practice time in general a confession: “I regularly rested in training.”
Especially when the line-up is already set. Petersen: “You were more relaxed because you knew whether you were playing or not. I trained very often with my eyes. That probably cost me a lot of starting XI appearances because Christian Streich attaches great importance to the quality of training.”
Why there were curses and dilemmas when working with Streich, why there should be a rethink in football with regard to Joker, how he lost sympathy in Jena and why it was initially “brutal” in Cottbus, and how he plans his future – read the big kicker interview with Petersen in the current kicker (Monday edition, or from Sunday evening here in the eMagazine).
2023-07-16 15:19:42
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