Stach: “My father is my biggest critic”

Anton, we’re meeting you for a SPIELFELD interview on the tennis courts of FC 1920 Zuzenhausen, which is actually only one serve away from the TSG headquarters. It’s a home game for you: as a youngster, you were even among the top 10 in Germany in your age category.

“A clay court like this is a special place for me. Throughout my childhood, I played football and tennis alongside each other. Sometimes I had football training and then tennis training on one day, and on the weekend there were football matches and then tennis tournaments too. My parents had to shuttle me back and forth a lot. The whole thing went on until I was 13 or 14. Then the time slowly came when my father told me: ‘At some point you have to decide, you can’t do both forever.’ And in the end, I didn’t decide so much against tennis as I did for football, because I also found it nice to do a team sport.”

Your father Matthias is regarded as the voice of tennis in Germany, was a ranked player himself and played doubles in the German Tennis Bundesliga alongside French Open winner Thomas Muster. A decision in favour of tennis would have been the obvious one.

“I was of course shaped by that, and tennis was also great fun for me, it still is too. However, our parents never pushed us to do anything. But the decision to play football was fairly okay, I’d say. (laughs) That said, tennis will always be a part of me. I also watch a lot of the guys I used to play against or who were at the same tournaments, like Alexander Zverev, who was an age group above me at the time.”

You presumably also met several tennis stars thanks to your father?

“I went to some tournaments and met great players like Roger Federer or even the famous Uncle Toni, Rafael Nadal’s coach, at the Rothenbaum in Hamburg. And many years ago I met Gaël Monfils, one of my absolute favourite players, at the Stuttgart Weißenhof. I had an all-areas pass that allowed me to go everywhere, even into the dressing rooms, which I didn’t do of course. I still have the photo with him. I always thought he was really cool because he’s an unbelievably spectacular player, a real risk-taker. I was similar, I always liked to play stop-lob variations – but not as well, of course.” (laughs)

Would you really have had the chance to go similarly far in tennis?

“I think I would have had the potential. But when you’re still so young, it’s hard to say whether it would have ultimately been enough for a professional career or not. But I actually achieved super tournament results in my age category – with relatively little effort, because I always playing football at the same time. I faced players like Rudolf Molleker, who was among the top 150 players in the world and was in the main draw of Grand Slam tournaments. I often had very close, heated matches against Rudi, but once, if I remember correctly, I won 6-2, 6-0 against him. That was a great time.”

But you ultimately opted for football. Can you explain the decision?

The first clubs started to take notice of me in my home region of Buchholz in der Nordheide at that time: St. Pauli, HSV, Bremen. I was 14 and you always follow the Bundesliga at the weekend – and that was probably the deciding factor that made me think: ‘Wow, I can now play in the youth setup of such a huge club myself.’ I think the decision was made when the management of Werder Bremen came to our house – and at the time, as a youngster, I was wide-eyed and thought: ‘I want to take this chance.'”

But you continued to live in Buchholz for the time being, almost 100 kilometres away.

“I commuted for that first year, always by train, over an hour from train station to train station, almost every day after school. After that, they offered me a place at the boarding school. My mother wasn’t so keen on the idea of me leaving home so soon, but in the end I did it – and it was a formative period. I learned a lot and had to become independent early on. But towards the beginning, when I was on holiday with my parents or had been at home for a longer period of time, it was hard to make the leap again. I had it really good at home.”

To what extent does it help in terms of mutual understanding when you have a family where everything revolves around sport, your two sisters play basketball at the top level domestically and your father is a well-known figure in sports journalism?

“Sport has always been a huge thing for us. It was always important to our parents that we exercised, no matter the sport. For health reasons, but also for social contact. I stayed with football and tennis. My sisters played basketball and tennis at the start. It was a lot of fun for all of us, so we stuck at it.”

Are there rivalries?

“I’m the only boy in our trio, so it’s a bit different in this case. I did play basketball with my sisters, but mostly only in defence. (laughs) There was always a healthy competition between us siblings. Our parents have done really well to make sure we really give each other everything and push each other.”

You’re not the only one who has come a long way, so have your sisters.

“It’s really amazing. My younger sister Lotta, who is 21, is now in her third year in the Basketball Bundesliga, currently at Mitteldeutsche BC. And my older sister Emma already went to the USA at the age of 17 after graduating from high school and played basketball for Gonzaga University; she continued to spend a lot of time abroad after that too. Most recently, she played for a Greek club and came sixth with the German national basketball team at the European Championships in the summer. Let’s see where she moves to now.”

You’ve already gone through this process. You moved from 1. FSV Mainz 05 to TSG on 1 September, the last day of the transfer window. When did you decide to move?

“I’m very thankful to Mainz 05 for everything. I took my first steps in the Bundesliga there and became a Germany international – in my personal favourite positions as a No. 6 or 8. But the coach recently envisaged me elsewhere, putting me in the No. 10 or using me in attack on the wing. I realised that it’s not the position I feel comfortable in. I like to have the ball at my feet and the game in front of me. In Mainz, I suddenly realised that I couldn’t really bring my strengths onto the pitch. It frustrated me a bit; it was a gradual process. And the people in charge at Hoffenheim, led by Alexander Rosen and coach Pellegrino Matarazzo, gave me a really good feeling. I knew Hoffenheim and I think the philosophy just fits me very, very well. This assessment has also been confirmed in the first few weeks: it’s intense, but extremely good fun. I think TSG have huge potential and I’m happy to be here.”

You spoke about the philosophy at TSG which you like. How would you describe it in three or four key words?

“The footballing element, the passing moves, the good link-up play, that’s what Hoffenheim are known for in Germany. Good, attractive football, with lots of action on the ball, also with low balls and taking a lot of action yourself. That’s TSG for me.”

And how did coach Pellegrino Matarazzo convey his ideas to you?

“Rino is a very strategic coach, I think. He gives you an enormous amount of input, which you then have to implement. He also asked me what position I see myself in, and that completely coincides with his view. He sees me as a 6 or even an 8, definitely in the middle.”

Was your international debut the highlight of your career so far or would you perhaps single out the U21 title or the experience of the Olympic Games?

“The first senior international appearance was something very special. The title at the U21 European Championships was great too of course, the promotion to the Bundesliga with Greuther Fürth is among the top moments, and certainly the experience at the Olympic Games. But this senior international has a special significance at home. I was always teased in the family for the fact that my sisters have played so many internationals and I’m the one with the fewest games for Germany. (laughs) There are always funny debates at home. I now have two international caps – and I hope that more will follow.”

What does it mean to you to compete for Germany?

“A call-up to the national team is a huge honour. When you think that more than a million people in Germany play football and you are one of the – in inverted commas – best players in the country at that moment, then it is a huge honour. I don’t think you’re aware of that at the time. But when you think about it in retrospect, it’s actually insane to have achieved that.”

How do you regard the national team’s current situation?

“First of all, I would like to say that I am incredibly grateful to Hansi Flick to have made my debut under him as the national team coach. I came to know him as a super person and that’s why it’s a pity that it didn’t work out. But at the same time, I hope that now – like in the match against France – there will be a positive connection between the team and the fans again, that they will become a unit again. I believe that this team simply deserves confidence – and that it is not so bad as it is often made out to be. It’s about how you perform as a team. You can learn that from the basketballers. At the World Cup, you saw what kind of team they were right from the start, they pushed each other along with the fans, and in the end they won the title. If Germany can create an atmosphere like that in football, then it will be very difficult to beat us again. Especially at a home European Championship.”

Maybe even with Anton Stach playing. Or even with your father on the microphone, like at the U21 European Championship, when he was suddenly commentating on your substitution. What did you make of this almost famous scene?

“I didn’t know about it during the game, but after the game I received the video almost 1,000 times. We laughed about it together. It was simply a bizarre situation that many people remembered. It happened so quickly as I hadn’t even played a friendly match for the national youth team before and suddenly I was at the European Championship – and then I was substituted on and my father was sitting at the microphone for my debut. It was a very cool experience, for my father too I think. Even though it’s not so easy on an emotional level to commentate on your own son. But he did quite well, I think.” (laughs)

Leverkusen’s No. 6 Granit Xhaka recently said in an interview that he had never been praised by his father. Do you feel the same way, with your father being a great supporter and at the same time your biggest critic?

“That’s true. He taught me how to deal with criticism at a very early age. When we won 5-0 at youth level and I scored three goals, he never said: ‘Great game, great job’, but rather ‘In that situation, you should have done this and that better’. He always had the opinion: ‘You get enough praise from others anyway!’ I think that left its mark on me, but at the same time it also helped me a lot. It’s still like that today: I actually talk to him after every game and he openly tells me his opinion. My father is my biggest critic. That’s important. I think that’s the only way to progress. But of course I’m happy when he praises me – at least from time to time. Because that does happen too, of course.” (laughs)