Thomas Müller interview

[chinra.livejournal.com]

ZEIT ONLINE made an interview with Thomas Müller about his fame, lost chances and the prophetic gift of his wife.

Source is this German article.




Sometimes I was not sure about specific terms or a sentence in general, but I think you can get the gist.


Question: Mister Müller, there is no football player who has went through such a fast advancement as you. Is your inner coordinate system actually still working?
Thomas Müller: I think it is. But I stay relaxed. Besides, I always was the type who wanted much. And that preferably fast.

Question: For example?
Müller: When there were two pieces of cake on the table, I always wanted the bigger one. My mother and my brother can confirm this.

Question: Your brother probably didn't agree with always having the smaller piece.
Müller: Most of the time I just took the bigger piece and then listened to the trouble. But I had what I wanted.

Question: It is said that as a child you already were on the pitch for one and a half hours at your first training...
Müller: I have read that somewhere, too.

Question: Then the other way: You already married with 20. That is very early, as well.
Müller: That's right. For people at my age this is uncommon. But often they are in a different situation: They study, don't have a regular job and are very mobile. With my wife and me it went well right from the start. Quite early I accommodated in with her. She was living in a suburb of Munich. That was very handy for me, because the way to the practive field of FC Bayern became much shorter through that. Other couples first live in seperated flats. We skipped that phase. That is why it went so fast in the end.

Question: It still is a rather unconventional way to live. Does it help you to get along with the discomposure about yourself?
Müller: I think it does. When you are living the in the public and then in such a shark-tank like Bayern Munich, it is important that you keep yourself a certain amount of privateness. You know that everything at home has its place, that you belong there, that you feel good there.

Question: Do you enjoy being famous?
Müller: Everybody who wishes to be famous probably doesn't know what it means. Of course it's nice when people are interested in you, when you, where-ever you are, are the center of attention. But you also have to be able to deal with that.

Question: Which amenities does it have to be famous?
Müller: Small example: When you enter a plane you sometimes are asked if you want to meet the captain in the cockpit. But when you leave again, you have to allow four pictures of you when you are at the baggage claim. It's like everywhere in life: Everything has two sides. Many of those who want to be famous probably only see the positive things.

Question: Would you suffer from losing your recent status?
Müller: For my well-being I don't need a certain status. I need athletic succes, which probably is linked with the status. In general I could get along quite well if I were less important for the public.

Question: How does your wife deal with you being recognized everywhere?
Müller: For her it's a bit more difficult. Also when it's just the two of us she never has me for herself alone. Since the World Cup I am part of the public life. I try to please this without giving myself up. It is not as if I do everything. I also say stop when I get the feeling that something is going too far. But I think that by now the maximum of interest is reached.

Question: Do you believe or hope that?
Müller: I hope that. But I can't imagine that it will become more. By now ever so often people recognize me or talk to me, also people who don't have anything to do with football. Women around 50 for example, who never watch a match when it is not the World Cup and then suddenly tell you about their excitement. Though that is nice as well.

Question: How do you protect yourself? Do your parents help you?
Müller: I rather try to protect my parents. During the World Cup they had a lot of stress. For a while there were two or three camera teams at theirs. I was not comfortable with this.

Question: Even your grandmother Erna had to do interviews during the World Cup...
Müller: That was my mistake. Because I greeted my grandparents over television I called attention to them by media. But this is something I understood now: you have to be careful with everything you say. Everything has an echo.

Question: Do you think that especially now people look at you? That the people are nearly waiting for you to make a false step?
Müller: That is always the case. When someone has achieved a lot some people wait for it: When does he break? When is he made a head shorter? I think the people want that also stars show weakness, so they can identify with them. They are not allowed to become supermen. That is also the reason why in gossip magazines one can find those pictures of Hollywood celebrities where you can clearly see their wrinkles. There everyone can see: They just are normal people, too.

Question: Are you prepared for the mood to revert?
Müller: Yes, I am aware that is can change when it is not going that well. That is something I have to get along with just as well, even when this is the actual difficulty. That is why I try to show it quite plainly to myself that all the positive headlines which came with the wave of success can revert just as fast into the negative. One can't allow themself to be electrified by it or turn crazy.

Question: Are you endangered in this aspect?
Müller: Basically, I am more the rational type. But sometimes I also catch myself checking in newspapers what is written about me. Sometimes I ask myself: Why do you read this nonsense? But of course it is a feedback.

Question: You make a very self-confident impression. Did you think that what you have reached in the last years in some way was possible?
Müller: I might be self-confident, but not that self-confident. The way it happened is just crazy! I can remember the summer when I went from the A-youth of Bayern to the amateurs. A few months ealier I met my wife, we have been to vacation together and we talked about how it would be with the amateurs. I was not sure if I managed this. My wife doesn't know much about football, but she predicted that I will make it to the professionals. I told her: Keep calm, being a professional player for Bayern, you might not know this, but that is really difficult. Actually it is impossible. Then she answered: No, you will make it. And then it also happened.

Question: What else did your wife predict for your further career?
Müller: Maybe I should ask her what is going to happen in near future. ... Nah, I just try to keep my niveau at football. I hope that I can improve, grow.

Question: Louis van Gaal, your coach at Bayern, said it will be a tough season for you. Does he do that to protect you?
Müller: I can't imagine that. Louis van Gaal knows that I get along quite well when everything is going well. And that is the case. At the moment I don't think that I will be in trouble.

Question: Were you surprised that he was critisizing you so harshly a week ago after you gave away a big chance against Kaiserslautern to take the lead?
Müller: No, he has not done that.

Question: Don't you think so?
Müller: No, it was just media blowing everything up. Internally everything was much more businesslike. Van Gaal said that out of that situation a goal should have come. He is right with that. It was not good that I didn't play the ball to someone else. However, that there were two players running next to me who just would have needed to push the ball in the empty goal is something I truly only saw afterwards on video.

Question: Another scene: In the Champions-League-Final against Inter Mailand you had the big chance for the 1:1. How often did you think about this situation afterwards?
Müller: I watched that scene several times in the days after the match. Because I wanted to know why it didn't work to score the goal.

Question: So? Have you succeeded in that?
Müller: No. In similar situations I already scored. Then ten or twenty centimeters are missing in one or the other direction. But you have to get over it. Because of the World Cup I was already looking for the next aim. That is the positive at football: After a negative experience immediately there will be a new challenge. That's how it goes. What has been does not count for a long time. That is good for those who lost and a pity for those who won something. Success in football doesn't last.

Question: Do you sometimes feel like the time is running away?
Müller: The rhythm is set very high. Louis van Gaal often gives us free-time even though he knows that it physically would be better if we were training. But he also knows that the mind is even more important.

Comments

[lindsay0819.livejournal.com]

Thiiiiiiiiiiis <3

[hazel-belle.livejournal.com]

Gurl.... you know it!