Famous father, new beginnings: World champion’s son joins Münster physio team

Five weeks before the official start of the “2nd League adventure” (2nd to 4th August), surprise newcomer Münster has almost completed its squad. It just needs to make a few adjustments. But there is another, very interesting personnel change…

Prominent new signing. Prussia signs world champion’s son!

The team of physiotherapists was also expanded to include Kira Loose (26) and Matthias Sieme (43). The third member of the team is Tobias Gienger (39), who comes from a family that is not only very enthusiastic about sports, but also extremely successful.

Father Eberhard (72) is a true gymnastics legend. Between 1971 and 1981, “Ebse” celebrated an incredible 36 German championships. In 1974, he even became world champion on his favorite apparatus, the horizontal bar. In addition, he has three European Championship titles (1973, 1975 and 1981) and the bronze medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

Horizontal bar world champion Ebenhard Gienger (l.), here at the “Ball des Sports” with former figure skater Marika Kilius (r.)

Foto: Star Press/cinnemon red

His speciality – the Gienger salto! A flying element on the horizontal bar named after him, in which the gymnast releases himself from the bar in a forward swing, does a backward salto in the air with a half longitudinal axis rotation, and then grabs it again.

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Isn’t it much more natural that son Tobias would also end up doing gymnastics – and not football? “Of course I did a lot of gymnastics in my youth and played baseball like my older brothers Andreas and Markus, who both became national players,” explains the youngest Gienger and continues, “but I was also very influenced by my mother, who was also a competitive athlete and two-time German champion in rhythmic gymnastics and later turned to the sports education approach. That’s how I ended up in physiotherapy.”

With football as a more random field of activity? Tobias Gienger: “No, I’ve been fascinated by it since I was little. The German Gymnastics Federation’s performance center, where I often accompanied my father, was very close to Frankfurt’s Waldstadion. So it was only logical that I would become an Eintracht fan. I actually slept in club bed linen as a child.”

Gienger junior Tobias can do it too – as you can see. He also used to do a lot of gymnastics

Photo: Private

He has remained loyal to one eagle (Attila) to this day – and has now gained a second (Fiffi) in Münster. Once an eagle, always an eagle. After two years with Preußen’s U23 team, he has now moved up to the pros. Incidentally, he was already with Luca Bazzoli (24) and Malik Batmaz (24) in the youth performance center of VfB Stuttgart, where he worked until 2022. Before he and his wife Ellen moved to Hamm in Westphalia, where she has an apprenticeship at the Hamm/Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences.

Gienger junior is very excited about the future challenge in the second division and full of anticipation: “Preußen is a really cool club. The guys all make a really nice impression and the atmosphere in the city is fantastic.” He is also happy to accept that there might be a lot of “extra work” ahead of him.

However, it will be less his job to accompany the team to all games and sit on the bench. “Kira and Matthias are primarily responsible for that,” he says. I’m more concerned with the players’ rehab, accompanying them after injuries, and then handing them over to our fitness coach Tim Geidies for reintegration into the team.”

Gymnastics legend Eberhard Gienger is still in top shape at 72 and an enthusiastic skydiver

Photo: Sven Moschitz

Can we expect the “world champion dad” to appear in person at the Preußen Stadium one day? Tobias, who looks very similar to him: “Maybe, but my father is still pretty busy. He trains four to five times a week. At 65, he actually managed the Gienger somersault. I think he can still do that today. He is also an enthusiastic skydiver, which also takes up a lot of time.”

But who knows – maybe Eberhard “Ebse” Gienger will actually float into the “Antik-Arena” before a big and important match and land – precisely on the dot, of course – with the ball in the center circle…

2024-06-26 18:44:37
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