The University of Bochum is the current European football champion and they came to the European Universities Games Zagreb – Rijeka 2016 to defend that title. Their coach, Adam Frytz, sat down with us to talk about their one year anniversary of champions’ title in between the two big competitions.
“It was a big surprise for us. After winning only one match in our group, we won again over the Turkish Pamukkale University in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, we defeated the Ural Federal University on penalties. I’m not exaggerating when I say that our win in Osijek was a miracle. In that respect, we are similar to this year’s Euro winners, the Portuguese,” Adam said.
He added he would remember the people of Osijek as warm and welcoming. Their stay in Osijek taught them a lot about cultural tolerance and they made many new friends in the city as well.
Bochum’s champion title made big news across Germany:
“When we returned home, we did interviews left and right and for the first time, all eyes were on us. Countless sites and journals wrote about our victory and our University had photos of our team plastered everywhere. All over the city, huge billboards went up in our honour. Perhaps the best thing we got out of our win was a bigger support from our sponsor, Volkswagen. We also got countless proposals for collaboration from German football academies and some professional clubs even gave us access to a software specialized in analyzing matches. We are thankful for everyone who wants to work with us and we believe the gold medal isn’t the only reason for that, because our group gets along very well and we are always focused on our goals,” Adam said.
Bochum’s victories are not limited to the European championship. A little over a month ago, they ranked first in a national student championship, which involved 32 universities. Their line-up is slightly different than last year. They were joined by two goalkeepers and some new players, among which Marz, who has scored 3 goals for the team so far.
“My players are excellent at their job and they are growing together as a team. We will do our best at the European Universities Games and we hope to win the gold medal again, but being a European champion is not something that one can simply predict,” Adam added.
