A book not just for boys

The focus is, of course, placed on football; contrary to what the title may suggest, this is not a psychology book. That said, it is about willpower, sacrifice, pushing to the limit and reaching goals. The young people in the TSG Hoffenheim youth performance centre, who one day hope of achieving their dream of becoming professional football players, experience these sensations all the time. They have countless role models who have taken the step up from the TSG academy. After all, the Hoffenheim youth set-up is the most successful in Germany. The path to follow in the footsteps of Christoph Baumgartner, Dennis Geiger, Marco John, Kevin Akpoguma or Niklas Süle may sometimes be rocky, but it is always one filled with great experiences. And that's exactly what players like Umut Tohumcu, who turned 17 in August and is already scoring goals for the TSG U19s and the Germany U18s, tell us.

Umut joined TSG on his 13th birthday from SC Freiburg. He had grown tired of making the long bus journey from his hometown of Offenburg to Freiburg's training ground, so he moved into the Hoffenheim residency. He previously used to spend so many hours travelling that he barely had any time left to eat. Now everything was different: ''There was food there for me at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and healthy food at that,'' he says. The improved diet led to a boost in performance. But the separation from home proved challenging. ''If you have a close bond with your family, a residency like that is really tough at first. My family cried a lot because I wasn't there, and they missed me a lot." But a special experience on 9 September 2017 turned things around, and from then on, Umut felt more and more comfortable. It happened when he was on ball-boy duty at a TSG home game in the PreZero Arena: ''After the ball was cleared into touch by Mats Hummels in Bayern Munich's half, Andrej Kramaric came running towards me. I reacted quickly and threw him a replacement ball. He sent the throw-in to Mark Uth, who then scored to make it 2-0. I was celebrated for ages afterwards as I'd played a part in helping defeat Bayern. That was obviously a wonderful feeling. This experience really helped me find my feet in Hoffenheim.'' This passage of text was handwritten by Umut, which is also how all the other contributions from the youngsters featured in the book were gathered. All the emerging talents played in TSG sides in the U15 to U19 age groups in the 2020/21 season, and were greatly affected by their inability to play or train for long stretches of time due to the Covid pandemic.

Umut, who has already played for the German U18 national team this season and scored six goals in the U19 Bundesliga, also talks about his "aggression mode" and what he has done to address it. "We have a sports psychologist at Hoffenheim. She helped me extend my fuse. I now really imagine what a long fuse looks like. Since then, I've been able to control myself better, things have also been going better at school. In the past, when I had stress at school, I wasn't allowed to train. I've changed that bit by bit and it's paid off." He has been representing the Germany age-group teams since U15 level after turning down a request to play for Turkey. If the dream of making a living playing football doesn't work out, Umut has an alternative: "If I can't achieve my goal of playing football, then I want to work in elderly care, just like my sisters."

''It's my dream project''

The book was developed on the initiative of TSG press spokesperson Holger Kliem, who also drew the portrait cards of the players. The book is published by Matthias Knöss, the managing director of the Nele Neuhaus Foundation. Pia Regine, whose main responsibility is children's and youth marketing at TSG, was appointed project manager in autumn 2020. "It's my dream project," says Pia Regine, who is also responsible for the Hoffi Club magazine, the Mini magazine and the "On the road with Hoffi" stories. She knew what had to be done and got to work setting the production schedule and outlining the content structure. She also worked alongside members of staff from ''Anpfiff ins Leben'' to interview the youngsters. A questionnaire also served to help prepare the young players to write down their personal experiences. This process resulted in a variety of personal anecdotes about what goes on behind the scenes at the youth performance centre on Sinsheimer Straße in Hoffenheim. "The basic idea of the book is to promote reading among children and young people. The topic of football, when described by young people themselves, proves very interesting. However, 'Football is also in the mind' is also aimed at all parents whose children have small and big footballing ambitions," says Pia Regine.

The end product is a wonderful mix of information and entertainment. In short profiles, the young players also reveal who their biggest footballing role models are as well as their favourite series and films. The book is also bolstered by contributions from Christoph Baumgartner, Marco John, Stefan Posch, Kevin Akpoguma, Dennis Geiger and Luca Philipp, all current TSG first-team members who made the journey through the Hoffenheim youth academy. Pia Regine prepared further texts - some of which have already been published in SPIELFELD magazine - about how a youth performance centre works, how mental agility is trained in the Helix Arena and how passing accuracy can be improved as a core skill in the Footbonaut.

Video interviews with the players

Sky reporter Klaus Veltman also filmed additional interviews with all the boys. QR codes contained within the book lead to these short documentaries, which give a vivid portrayal of the young talents. "The contents of this book are profound and enlightening. The stories provide encouragement to follow your dreams. They show that it is worth investing time and effort to achieve personal goals. When reading the stories, it becomes clear that not only the body, but also the mind must be trained," says publisher Knöss. Not all stories turn out as well as Umut Tohumcu's. His friend Denis Perrone, who dreams of playing for Juventus one day and has already received call-ups to the Italy U15s and the Germany U16s, suffered a serious health scare at the beginning of this season that has seriously jeopardised his career prospects. Four further players, who all put so much effort into realising their dream, were not selected for the next age-group level at TSG and have since moved to other clubs. And Dafina Redzepi, the girl considered a wonder-talent, who had trained alongside boys in a youth performance centre for longer than any other player in Germany, left TSG of her own volition - with he future destination unknown. U16 player Ayyub Baroudi perfectly encapsulated the the vastly different career journeys which each young footballer embarks on in the title of his text: "Becoming a footballer is an adventure."

Information on the book:

Matthias Knöss: Fußball findet auch im Kopf statt 2

Econ Verlag, 224 Pages. Price: €14.99. First Edition: 2021.

ISBN: 978-3-430-21072-0

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