That look! The way he ripped the helmet off his head on the blue artificial turf of Bhubaneswar and looked, half triumphant, half questioning: Did I really just do that, save a third penalty in the final against Belgium? Are we world champions now? Then even the model athlete in the goalkeeping gear fell to the ground in the storm of celebration from his teammates.
Jean-Paul Danneberg was a part-time and influential force in Germany’s World Cup title in India in January last year. Substituted in the quarter-finals and finals only for the shootout, the nerve-racking one-on-one situations in hockey, he was the match winner in each case. A year and a half later, the Darmstadt native is no longer a (substitute) man for special moments, but has risen to become the number one goalie in the German Olympics.
This has been clear since the nomination of the Paris squad by national coach André Henning, which the players were anxiously awaiting. The German Hockey Association had agreed that the day after the last training session, every player would receive an email at 11 a.m. with the news of whether or not they would be in Paris. The two minutes from 11 a.m. to 11:02 a.m., when the email arrived, were the longest of his life, Danneberg told the FAS.
Experienced team, young keeper
The minutes and hours after the news that his Olympic dream was coming true were particularly emotional. But he didn’t really realize it until he arrived in the Olympic Village and saw the statue with the five rings. He was immediately swept away by the “school trip vibes,” as he says, that had already prevailed in the village in the days before the opening ceremony. Danneberg said he was on “cloud nine” during the first few days, had already managed to get a photo with the Spanish tennis world stars Nadal and Alcaraz, exchanged ideas with various athletes from other countries and sports and was happy that “everyone is on the same level, no matter how many followers you have.”
For their gold mission, the Germans are relying on an experienced team with a young goalkeeper. At 21, Danneberg is the youngest and at 1.96 meters, the tallest in the team. The giant from Rot-Weiß Köln is supposed to be the support that the DHB selection absolutely needs for great achievements in modern hockey. “Our sport has become so fast with so many actions.
This text comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
The goalkeeper position has never been as important as it is today in order to be able to make the difference,” says Danneberg, whose reflexes will be crucial in the first group match against hosts France this Saturday (5 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Olympics, on ARD and on Eurosport). The fourth group match on Wednesday will be the match between world champions and European champions, Germany against the Netherlands.
The fact that the team has agreed to make gold the goal for Paris is not just the (mandatory) consequence of the 2023 World Cup title, but stems from the players’ intrinsic conviction, explains Danneberg. “The World Cup has only shown what we are capable of. We are also currently incredibly well positioned,” he says. “The world’s top men’s hockey players have never been so close together. That makes you want to dream.”
Danneberg left his home in southern Hesse early in his sporting career with the dream of becoming a very good goalkeeper. Jean-Paul was ten years old when he moved from his hometown of TEC Darmstadt to the big club Mannheimer HC, together with his equally talented twin brother and his sister, who was four years older than him (later a junior national player). In Hesse, talented players always find it difficult to compete with the best young talent in the big hockey centers. TEC, just ten minutes by bike from his parents’ house, has always been Danneberg’s home club. As a junior national player, he gave goalkeeping training in Darmstadt on days when he wasn’t training, and when he was in the senior squad he even helped out in a few games in the third division relegation battle.
Danneberg has reached the top of his sport. A torn meniscus in his knee at the beginning of the year did not shock him. “I am,” says the man from Hesse, “fitter than ever before.”
