Some of the players in the German World Cup team from 2014 are now pursuing completely different passions.Image: imago/Photosport
There are footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo, Gigi Buffon or Zlatan Ibrahimović who still want to play football after they are 40 years old. And then there are footballers who retire in their early 30s. A few days ago it was Gareth Bale who resigned at the age of 33. A year earlier, Kun Agüero, also aged 33, had given up his football boots – albeit for health reasons.
There is also no shortage of professionals in German football who stopped playing unusually early for the industry. Marcell Jansen (29) comes to mind, or Benedikt Höwedes (32). Even Philipp Lahm retired relatively early (34).
Marcell Jansen and Benedikt Höwedes played a total of 89 times for Germany. picture: imago sport photo service
One who must also be mentioned in this context is André Schürrle. In 2020, the former BVB player stopped playing at the age of 29. Schurrle told later in the “Hotel Matze” podcast, how much he had longed for his resignation and how glad he was that he had left the “toxic” football business behind.
After his professional career, Schürrle, who prepared Mario Götze for Germany’s winning goal in the 2014 World Cup final, worked as an investor and also concentrated on his tasks as a young father. Now he has apparently found an additional, new passion: ice bathing.
Schürrle shocks fans with ice pictures
Schürrle has been showing up in an ice-cold environment on Instagram for a few weeks. Be it in a bucket full of ice water or, like recently, hiking shirtless on an icy mountain. The ex-professional pushes his body to extreme limits – and is probably very enthusiastic about these experiences.
“The hardest mental and physical thing I’ve ever done”, says Schürrle, who played 207 Bundesliga games for Dortmund, Leverkusen and Mainz and also played in the Premier League (FC Chelsea) and the Russian league (Spartak Moscow). He continues enthusiastically: “In the last few minutes I couldn’t feel anything and had to find something deep inside me to continue! An experience I will never forget.”
As he explains on Instagram, Schürrle takes part in a program by Dutch extreme athlete and cold expert Wim Hof. For years, this has been promoting the supposed health benefits of regular exposure to the cold. At Wim Hof, cold showers and ice baths become meditative experiences that, among other things, strengthen the immune system and prevent cardiovascular diseases.
Savas, Simonetti, Aogo: Many celebrity colleagues speak out
In the comment column for Schürrle’s photos from the ice, many fans are both impressed and shocked. There are also some prominent voices among them. “Respect,” writes ex-soccer player Dennis Aogo, for example. “I freeze to death just watching it,” commented entertainer Riccardo Simonetti. Rapper Kool Savas is also impressed: “Old Butterfly”, writes the “King of Rap”.
But Schürrle’s pictures do not command such respect from everyone. “What is this madness about?” Asks a follower, irritated. Another writes: “I’m just recovering from the flu and feel personally offended when I see this.”
Professional football and Qatar have often gotten in each other’s way in the past few weeks, months and years. Most recently at the controversial World Cup in November and December in the emirate, which has repeatedly been criticized for the poor human rights situation.
