Neven Subotic was German champion twice in his career and winner of the DFB Cup with Borussia Dortmund, and yet the 33-year-old looks back on his career with mixed feelings and is very self-critical.
Fun, but no friendships: Former BVB star Neven Subotic is very critical of the football business and his former lifestyle as a professional. In an interview with the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”, the 33-year-old said: “In retrospect, I am ashamed that I lived so pointlessly at the time.” He had fun in his career, but did not make any lasting friendships, neither humanly developed something that he is proud of.
Short, compact, clear
Taking responsibility: The ex-professional hopes that more footballers will follow his example, place less value on status symbols and instead take on more social responsibility. However, the commitment should not be limited to PR campaigns, he added: “Anyone who does something like this for the wrong reasons should please leave it alone. You have to be convinced of your cause.”
Commitment to Africa: Subotic has been committed to ensuring that people in Africa have access to clean drinking water for almost ten years. He sometimes had to justify himself in football for this commitment. “Sometimes it was said: You have a foundation, and that’s not good – of course that wasn’t said so obviously, but expressed more diplomatically,” said Subotic. That is “sad”, especially since his work on the lawn has never suffered from it.
