Goalkeepers Need An Element Of Insanity.

I Would Never Have Thought I Was Capable Of Sitting On The Bench As The Number Two Man. And It Showed Me That You Can Really Achieve Everything In Life, Even The Unthinkable, As Long As You're Willing To Work On Yourself A Little Bit.

The Realization That You're Not Always Standing Down There On The Field Merely To Win, To Be Successful, Was Very Liberating. One Can Be Successful By Helping The Team, The Other Players. All Of A Sudden I Felt The Kind Of Empathy For People That I Hadn't Felt Before.

It Took Me A Long Time To Realize That Football Isn't Martyrdom, But A Game That's Enjoyable, And One In Which Getting Better At It Is Supposed To Be Fun. Perhaps It Would Have Been Better If I Had Understood This As A Young Man.

Of Course, Success Is A Relative Term. It Can Be Something Completely Different From Winning The German Championship Eight Times Or Making Millions.

The Goalkeeper Plays In A Psychological Position, And He's Dealing With Mental Things. I Wanted To Describe The Things I've Done Wrong And, Most Of All, What I've Done Right, So That Other People, Including Those In Other Professions, Could Learn From My Experiences.