After relegation with MSV Duisburg, Daniel Ginczek hung up his boots in the summer. However, the decision had already matured in him before his winter transfer.

In the winter of the previous season, Daniel Ginczek came to MSV Duisburg as a prominent reinforcement and was supposed to help secure the club’s relegation from the 3rd division. Six months later, the Zebras were in fourth place – and Ginczek’s career was over. In “kicker”, the 33-year-old looked back on his time in Duisburg, among other things – and issued an apology to Schalke.

The centre-forward had made himself unpopular there in January with a statement: “If they’re unlucky, they’ll soon be running around the arena again,” commented the man who played for Borussia Dortmund as a youth player on the precarious situation of the local rivals at the time. “At the end of the day, of course, that line blew up in my face,” says Ginczek.

He got carried away with this statement “out of a conviction that we can do it”. In the end, it was Schalke who made it, while Duisburg were relegated. “Nevertheless, I said that FC Schalke 04 belongs in the Bundesliga for me, just because of the derbies against BVB,” Ginczek emphasized, adding: ”I want to apologize for that – also as a former Dortmund player – to all Schalke fans and managers who somehow took offense at that.”

First thoughts of ending his career in fall 2023

He made his decision to end his career regardless of relegation. It had already matured in him in the fall of 2023, before his move to Duisburg, after the 4:3 win against Kaiserslautern in the sold-out “Fortuna for all” game had “no longer triggered anything” in him emotionally. Nevertheless, he did not want to spend the last six months of his career in the stands in Düsseldorf.

“I’m a sportsman through and through and want to compete,” explained Ginczek. Accordingly, he approached the Duisburg adventure “with full conviction” – with a “brutally bitter” ending. Ginczek spoke of mistakes at MSV that were “not just in the last six months”. Nevertheless, the club had no business being in the Regionalliga, and the relegated team was “actually too good” for that. “Other things didn’t fit. I’m not taking any responsibility for that. “

I definitely know that the SC Neheim board has my number.

Daniel Ginczek

In the future, Ginczek wants to remain professionally involved in soccer – and he has not completely ruled out a return to the pitch at his youth club SC Neheim in the Westphalia 2 regional league. “I definitely know that the SC Neheim board has my number.” However, the distance of around 100 kilometers from his adopted home of Düsseldorf, as well as his daughters’ respective training sessions at the sports club, make things difficult. However, the veteran, who made a total of 352 appearances from the regional league to the Champions League and scored 112 times, kept a back door open with a wink. “If they say I can only come to the games and keep fit that way, I’d think again. “