New blue Sport expert Alain Sutter: "I needed a lot of sleep after leaving St. Gallen"
He played for Bayern Munich and is a legend in the national team: Alain Sutter (56) is now a pundit for blue Sport in the Champions League. What he says about a legendary exchange of blows with Uli Hoeness and how he digested his release from FC St.Gallen.
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- At the start of the Champions League, blue Sport is strengthening its team of top-class experts with a prominent new addition: Alain Sutter.
- In an exclusive interview, Sutter talks about the difficult time after his release from FC St.Gallen and his future goals. The 56-year-old also reveals which team is his favorite to win the Champions League.
Alain Sutter, you are blue Sport's new Champions League expert. What can we expect from you?
Alain Sutter: I'm sure I'll be back with a lot of enthusiasm. I'm looking forward to getting back into this profession. I did it for 14 years at SRF and now I haven't done it for almost seven years. I am very happy to be part of your team.
How did you perceive blue Sport as an exponent of football from the outside?
I watched a lot of football with you. I've always found blue Sport to be very enriching and also very relaxed. You report in a good way, technically very well-founded, but still in a relaxed, easy-going atmosphere.
What are the international teams that grab you?
It's the really big ones that are formative for me as far as the style of football is concerned. Manchester City under Pep Guardiola, Liverpool under Jürgen Klopp, certainly Leverkusen with Xabi Alonso. Real Madrid is a team that is not so formative in footballing terms - but Real simply plays beautifully and is brutally successful.
Who is your favorite to win the Champions League?
The usual suspects. But for me, Manchester City is and remains the team to beat. The title is theirs.
How do you follow your former club Bayern Munich?
It's exciting to see how the club has developed and the direction it's taking. As with every club, there are ups and downs, but the ups and downs at Bayern Munich are at a very, very high level.
The people involved back then, Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, still have something to say today.
In principle, such transition phases are the most difficult for a club. Phases in which the people who were influential for so long have given up their posts but are still involved, while the newcomers come in and want to shape things freely and contribute their own ideas. It's not so easy when the old guard is still involved. You see it time and time again at clubs that there is usually a bit of a hitch in this phase of change.
It's not so easy for Max Eberl when you have Uli Hoeness giving interviews that put him under pressure.
That's part of the job. Bayern Munich is where it is thanks to Uli Hoeness. He has done an incredible job and has great expertise. He is also popular with journalists. They like to invite him because he simply says what he thinks. I am 100% convinced that Max knew what he was getting himself into. He knows that Uli Hoeness says what he thinks.
You know that too. You had a legendary exchange of blows with him. Uli Hoeness once criticized your diet: "Sutter just needs to give up his muesli from time to time and eat a proper roast pork."You countered: "You can see what you look like when you eat too much roast pork in Mr. Hoeness. " How often were you asked about this?
Very often. I'm also someone who says what I think. But it's also the case that when I said that, I went to Uli Hoeness afterwards and said that it wasn't the smartest answer and that I was sorry. That was never a problem between us. That was then also over. But it's a part of me that has always belonged to me and still does, that I say what I think.
Did you really eat such an extreme diet back then?
You have to see the context. It was extreme for the environment. But I ate the way practically every professional athlete, including footballers, eats today. I was simply a bit ahead of my time. It was perhaps extreme for the time. I tried out lots and lots of things. I was very interested and informed about nutrition. It wasn't a big issue back then. I didn't have any nutritionists or people who could really help me.
What did you eat?
I never had a specific direction, but kept trying out different things. To improve my performance. I realized relatively quickly that my body was my capital and that I had to take good care of it. I didn't have a physique like an elephant, like other footballers who could do whatever they wanted. Sleep, regeneration and nutrition have always made a big difference to me.
When you read a statement like that from Uli Hoeness in the newspaper, it's quite a shock as a relatively young player, isn't it?
No, I didn't read that in the newspaper, Uli told journalists. And they then asked me about it in an interview - and got a spontaneous answer. It wasn't that I read it somewhere and thought about it for a long time until I thought of it. It was a very spontaneous saying at the time.
Let's talk about recent times. A few months ago, you were sacked from FC St.Gallen. How did you take it?
Well, I was released and not dismissed. But it was a shock. I've already said that a few times, it came as a surprise. I put my heart and soul into it for six years. We were very successful, we were also in second place at the time. There were a lot of people at FC St.Gallen that I grew fond of, that I liked. I loved going to Kybunpark every day to work. It took some time to digest the whole thing. The six years were very intense. I realized that afterwards. I needed a lot of sleep. So it's a process. I don't know if it's finished, but it's certainly the case that I've accepted it. I'm now also looking ahead and looking forward to the new challenges that await me.
Did you need to get away from football first?
No, I actually carried on with everything as normal. Football interests me. It was more internal processes that took place, very personal processes that actually have nothing to do with football itself.
Can you watch St.Gallen games?
Yes, yes, quite normally. It's also exciting for me to keep following it. I've always said that you can only really judge the work that I do, or that people do, in hindsight. It was exciting for me to see how stable what I had built up was. From that point of view, I'm naturally very interested in how things are going in St.Gallen. That's quite normal.
Is it emotional?
Yes, of course. I know practically everyone there. The only people who are new are the head of sport and the coaching team. I have no emotional problems there.
What do you want to do next? Are you looking for a new job as head of sport?
Do you want to make God laugh? Then tell him about your plans ... My goal is clearly to work in football again, to work in this position. In six years in this job, I've got the feeling that I'm in the right place and that I have the qualities you need for a job like this. During my time at St.Gallen, it was very successful, whether in sporting or business terms. I can put that to good use and be involved in one project or another. How it turns out is written in the stars.
