Jonas Hector turned up to the interview looking the part. The Germany international was wearing a tracksuit as he took time in between two training sessions to come and talk and he showed no nerves ahead of the clash with record Bundesliga winners Bayern München on Saturday (15:30 CET).
The FC Köln left-back has only played 59 Bundesliga games as he was a late-bloomer, who was still playing in the Oberliga for SV Auersmacher when he was twenty. However, now he is one of the top performers for Köln and has managed to make the jump to Joachim Löw’s national side.
In the interview with DFB.de’s Andreas Reiners, the 25-year-old spoke about his unusual route into professional football, social media, being a part of the national team and obviously the upcoming match against Bayern.
DFB.de: Jonas Hector, have you ever googled yourself?
Jonas Hector: No, I haven’t done that yet.
DFB.de: What do you think the top search options are when people put your name into Google?
Hector: I have no idea.
DFB.de: “Girlfriend”, “Single” and “Salary”. Would you have guessed that?
Hector: Actually, I don’t really mind if people want to know if I have a girlfriend or not. It’s probably quite interesting generally to find out how much footballers earn as well.
DFB.de: A lot of players share bits of their life with the fans through social media. Why don’t you do this?
Hector: I’m not the type of person who enjoys being in the public eye. I am happy that I can keep everything to myself a bit. For me private things should stay private. That’s what I believe, that I don’t have to share everything with everybody. I share parts of my life with those who mean something to me. I don’t have any reason to change that.
DFB.de: Is that not part of being a professional footballer today though? The fans should at least be able to have an impression…
Hector: I don’t think that it has to be a part of being a professional. It is common now for players to have fan sites to show the public a little bit about themselves. Those who do that are happy to, but there are also enough players who choose not to take part in it.
DFB.de: How do you deal with everything that goes with being a professional footballer, for example the hype and rushing around?
Hector: I am used to it now. You really notice that football is a booming business from the way that money is flooding into the game and how there will be even more investment in future. I try to ignore it a bit though and live my life as normal by not getting massively involved in it.
DFB.de: Your career didn’t take the usual route as you were still competing in the Oberliga when you were 20. You also didn’t play in any of the Germany youth sides. Furthermore, despite some offers from professional clubs you chose to play for Auersmacher for another year. Why did you decide that?
Hector: I didn’t feel I was quite ready to leave home at that point. At that time we were playing all over the country, so I figured that I would be able to put myself forward again. Meanwhile, I was able to adjust and become happier with the idea of moving away. I used that year to prepare myself for saying goodbye.
DFB.de: How important was it for your development to have a “normal” life?
Hector: I got to know how to live normally. For example, a lot of my friends began working early and I did a voluntary year of social service. I didn’t have a lot of money and had to try to budget. It has shown me that people can live without being professional footballers.
DFB.de: How hard was it in the end to move to FC Köln?
Hector: From a football point of view, there was a lot more exercise to do. We had close to ten training session a week to prepare. That was already a big change from my old club. Furthermore, you have to adjust to a new lifestyle when you move from a village to a large city. When it’s your first time living on your own you have to first learn how to cope.
DFB.de: Why did you stay under the radar for so long?
Hector: Firstly, I didn’t have a growth spurt until I was a bit older as I was a late bloomer. I also played at a club that wasn’t the best for being seen for the Germany youth sides. Although we were playing at the highest level in Saarland, it is something totally different when you move up through a Bundesliga club’s academy.
DFB.de: When did you realise that you could make it as a professional?
Hector: When the first professional team asked if I would consider going to a trial (VfL Bochum), it got me thinking whether it would be possible. That was when I first started hoping. The club wanted me to join but I wasn’t ready to leave home for the aforementioned reasons.
DFB.de: What do you need to finally make the leap?
Hector: You won’t find yourself in a position where you’ll get seen in the first place if you don’t have talent and when you don’t have the right attitude you won’t stay there. Above all, you have to be in the right place at the right time in order to get an opportunity, but then you have to take it.
DFB.de: You took your chance at left-back with both hands. What are the challenges of that position?
Hector: The first challenge is to work both offensively and defensively. You have to hold up your side at the back and be effective going forward. It can be restricting having the touch line right behind you, but it can also be an advantage. It is a factor you have to get used to. You need a couple of games if you haven’t played there much to get to the required quality. It was already a totally different level in the second division.
DFB.de: You sometimes play in defensive midfield as well. Which position do you prefer?
Hector: It depends on the game, how involved you are and how things are going. Both positions have their advantages and disadvantages, so I wouldn’t like to place one above the other. I can play well in either and I have obviously lined up in both positions in matches.
DFB.de: The national team head coach, Joachim Löw, has pointed out in the past year that you are more defensive and more focused on counter attacking. How difficult is it to adapt your game for internationals?
Hector: it is a totally different game. We never have a lot of time to prepare for internationals. It is also difficult to simulate certain things in training. Everyone in the national team enjoys playing attacking football. There isn’t really any sessions where you get the chance to play against ten men who are all defending their own penalty area, even though that is what people have expected from us in the European Championship qualifiers. We don’t often get those kind of games at Köln and for that reason I have to adapt. So I have to continue working to do this as well as possible.
DFB.de: What motivates the national team?
Hector: Die Mannschaft became World Champions in 2014 and I want to keep us on top. The national side has the aspiration to play in big tournaments and in the summer we have the European Championship. As a new player coming into the squad you know straight away what is expected. That’s why I really enjoy being a part of a team like this.
DFB.de: Your contract with Köln runs until 2018 and there are a number of rumours about your future. What is your plan for the future?
Hector: The plan is to fulfil my contract and get up and go to work in the morning knowing that.
DFB.de: What’s the plan against Bayern?
Hector: Good question! We will have to see how the coach prepares us tactically and how we will play. The best example to look at is how Mainz won in Munich. You could see in that match that Bayern are not unbeatable. Maybe we should look back on the Mainz game. We will try to put in a good performance even though we know it will be difficult against an opponent with the quality that Bayern has. However, it will be a home match and we will have our fans behind us, so we will try to take something from the game.
DFB.de: How would you rate Köln’s season so far?
Hector: We’ve played adequately all season. We had a good first half to the season but we have given away some unnecessary points since the winter break. That’s why we haven’t slipped in the league but the victory over Hannover was made more important because of dropping points before. With 33 on the table we are in a good position. It’s all very close between the teams so we will be trying to keep adding to our total.
DFB.de: As it’s so close are you looking down or up from ninth place?
Hector: Our aim for the season is to pick up more points than last year, so more than 41. We need eight more points to reach that target and we will try our best to achieve that in the remaining games.
