At the age of 18, Kosi Saka made his debut for BVB. The 37-year-old explains what he ultimately lacked to remain a professional and what he likes about soccer in the Ruhr region.

Kosi Saka experienced a lot early in his career. In his youth, the 37-year-old first played for Arminia Bielefeld and then, from 2000, for Borussia Dortmund. At Schwarz-Gelb, he marched through the youth department and made the leap to professional (eleven appearances, one assist).

He then moved to Hamburger SV, where he remained without a professional appearance. Via the then second-division club Carl Zeiss Jena (nine games) and KFC Uerdingen (126 games, 15 goals, 15 assists), his path led in 2014 to Sportfreunde Baumberg from the Oberliga Niederrhein, for whom he still plays today. Speaking to Forecasting, the two-time DR Congo international explains, among other things, why he was unable to stay at the professional level and what happens when his child becomes a Schalke fan.

Kosi Saka, finish the sentence:

My greatest strength is… reading the game on the pitch.

My biggest weakness is… that I try to correct mistakes of my teammates by making extra runs. As a result, I sometimes neglect my own tasks.

In our cabin… it runs like in a family, where the big brother teases the little ones and the little ones are cheeky to the big ones, but always with respect and decency. It’s pretty funny.

If my child becomes a Schalke fan,… then there are no Christmas presents. But if it becomes a Dortmund fan, then it gets ten presents a year.

The best moment of my soccer career was… my first Bundesliga game. It was a Friday night against Hertha BSC, I was substituted in the 86th minute and the whole Westfalenstadion was screaming my name.

The best goal of my career was… back in my youth. Once, I felt I had out-dribbled half the team and hit the ball into the corner from 20 meters. The ball just got stuck in the angle for a few seconds, because the old goals still had a bar up there.

I didn’t stay a professional soccer player because… I stopped working. I relied on my talent and on my ability, but I forgot that you still have to screw in certain places.

The best thing about the Ruhr region is… that the cities are so close together. There are no friendships on the soccer field. No one is friendly there, even if they know each other privately. On the pitch, at least that’s how it was in my time and that’s how I still see it with the younger generation, players knock each other around sometimes.

Make up your mind:

Beer or water? A few years ago it was beer, but now it’s water.

Club or pub? Neither anymore, but if I have to choose, it’s the club.

Soccer on TV or stadium? That depends. If I’m alone, I prefer to watch in the stadium, with friends rather at home, it’s more fun there.

Are you a fighter or an artist? Definitely the artist!

Bundesliga or Premier League? Bundesliga!

And a few final questions:

Which star would you like to have a drink with? In soccer with Lionel Messi or the “real” Ronaldo, El Fenomeno. Away from soccer with basketball player LeBron James.

What can you do without? The runs in preparation.

What is indispensable for you? The family.

What music do you like to listen to and what’s playing in the booth? I actually listen to everything from German hits to pop, religious music or even hip-hop. I just have to like it so that I can move accordingly. We also have a mixture of music in the booth, depending on who’s playing it. If it’s Daniel Schwabke, it’s more pop and German, if it’s Melva Luzalunga, it’s hip hop or German rap. When I play, I’m more of an oldschool guy with songs that get you really hot before the game.

If you could start over again, what would you do differently in your life? It sounds bad to want to change something. You have to be grateful, of course, for the people you’ve met, who you’ve gotten to know and who have become family. If things had gone differently, maybe you wouldn’t know these great people.

But if I could do certain things differently in my soccer career now, I would go back to Dortmund when I was 18 or 19 and work on myself even more. I would listen even more to what the older players and the coaches told me back then. It was a shark tank back then, there were maybe one or two older players who talked to you from time to time. They were competitors, after all. Nowadays, the pool is much bigger, you get input from everywhere and many hands extended to help you. Back then it was a few hands, short conversations, but you didn’t notice it.

So I’d like to go back to Dortmund, sign the five-year contract they offered me instead of moving to Hamburg – even though that wasn’t wrong back then, of course – and then work even harder on myself.