From footballer to fire fighter

Being a professional footballer is a dream job. However, few players are able to continue beyond their early thirties. This comes as a shock to many, whose failure to think about the future during their playing days is a major error.

Christian Mikolajczak spent quite a long time in denial. But, at the age of 31, he was forced to accept that no football club wished to offer him a new contract. Looking back, he comments: "The only contract I possessed was my mobile telephone agreement." The trip to the Unemployment Office was not an easy one to make. "But it was something that needed to be done."

Until this point, things had always gone well for Christian. Passionate about football from an early age, his great dream was to become a professional. And he achieved this goal. He signed up with FC Schalke as a promising youth player and went on to finish as league runners-up with the club in 2001. Christian also enjoyed stints with Hanover 96 and several second division clubs. He did not give any thought at the time to life after football. "I was really lazy in that regard. It was so exciting to sit down with the manager Rudi Assauer and agree professional terms that I didn't have anything else in my head."

However, the longer a professional career goes on, the more important it becomes to explore the bigger picture. Time passes more quickly than you realise. And by no means all players become millionaires. In fact, quite the contrary is the case. Only just under ten percent of footballers have enough money to retire on at the end of their career.

All the others need to keep working and need to find a completely different occupation. Initially, Christian Mikolajczak had no idea what job he could do. Then a friend introduced him to the idea of joining the fire brigade. As an ex-professional footballer, Christian knows all about being fit and performing when it matters. He loved the tension and the adrenalin kick before an important game, and is now enjoying a similar thrill as a fire fighter. The only difference is that the focus is now on saving lives rather than scoring goals. This is a real challenge, and not everyone comes up to the mark. Christian had to compete against more than 500 other applicants to get the job.

He has now undergone more than four years of training, qualifying firstly as a paramedic and then as a chief fire officer. "The most difficult thing of all was learning to start again". Christian is now 35 and has secured the job he wanted with the fire brigade in Oberhausen. And football has also taught him something else. Namely that team work is also required when fire fighters are deployed. "When we go in together, we need to make sure that we all come out together. In football, you might lose a match or misplace a pass. But here human lives are at stake."

Even the careers of top players will come to an end some day. Carsten Ramelow is a case in point. This is a man who achieved virtually everything a footballer can achieve. He was a celebrated member of the Bayer Leverkusen team and won a World Cup runners-up medal with the German national team in 2002.

In 2008, Carsten was finally forced to retire following a knee injury. "You need to be aware that your time as a footballer is limited. I stuck it out for a long time and played at a high level. To be honest, I was glad when it was over. I had really suffered with my injury over the final eighteen months. That's not always apparent to the fans and the manager." However, Carsten found it difficult to be out of the limelight. Many players miss the fan recognition they once enjoyed. Nobody asks for autographed photos any more.

Carsten Ramelow originally wanted to be a police officer before opting for a career in football. Like around 70 percent of all professionals, he has no professional or vocational training qualification. Fortunately, he was able to make himself financially secure by joining partners in a ticketing company after his retirement. He has the following advice for young players. "Don't let them take everything off you. Query things, look around you sometimes. Then, when you eventually need to find a job, it's easier to roll up your sleeves." As a footballer, Carsten has also learned discipline. "Bring plenty of vigour to what you do. Then you'll be successful."

Tim Jerat and Michael Lejan are no longer putting their sole faith in the successes they achieve on the football field. Although both have just signed a new two-year deal with the club FC Viktoria Cologne, they are also studying business administration. They are completing the course on a distance-learning basis because their daily training sessions and weekend games mean that there is no other time during which they can study.

This is precisely where the problem lies. Many footballers simply do not get around to completing training or a course of higher education study. In order to motivate players, Tim and Michael plan in future to arrange sports scholarships in the USA for German footballers. The aim is to create an incentive to seek alternatives before it is too late. "It is helpful for your career if you have an alternative option," says Tim Jerat. "This means that you are more relaxed, and this can be an advantage on the field of play to help you become more successful."