Handball Stefan Kretzschmar
“I had major asshole traits for several years in sports and private life.”
As of: 5:16 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Stefan Kretzschmar in the Dyn documentary
Source: Dyn/dyn.sport
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The German handball icon Stefan Kretzschmar can rarely be seen in a private documentary. He speaks openly about his former relationships, such as that with Franziska van Almsick, and admits big mistakes. He also discusses his difficult relationship with his mother without taboos.
A legend of German handball provides a deep insight. Stefan Kretzschmar, sports director of the top Bundesliga club Füchse Berlin and one of the world‘s best left wingers during his playing days, opens up in the one-hour documentary “Kretzsche – The Handball Punk” on the streaming channel Dyn (like WELT, belongs to Axel Springer SE). Some topics even bring tears to his eyes. For example, when the 50-year-old speaks lovingly and reverently about his father Peter (†2018), once one of the best handball players in the GDR.
“My dad was the greatest personality I know. He was simply all-knowing. He was always confident. He was the best, the best advisor and someone I could talk to about anything. More than with any other friend. “My father was the greatest father in the world,” he reported – and struggled with his emotions.
But there are also chapters in his life that Germany’s most famous handball player is noticeably not proud of. Kretzschmar talks about his children Lucie-Marie (23) and Elvis Ernesto (15), whom he hurt a lot in the past: “I left my wife twice and with it my children too. Our wonderful daughter came from our first marriage and our wonderful son came from our second marriage. But I left her purely out of selfishness.”
In the spotlight with Franziska van Almsick
Both children also play handball. Lucie-Marie plays for the Bundesliga club HSG Bensheim/Auerbach and the German national beach handball team, Elvis Ernesto plays for the youth team of the Bundesliga club SC Magdeburg. But her father now admits: “You can’t put it any better now. For several years I had major asshole traits in sports and private life. I regret not being a better father.”
Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar in action during a game with her team HSG Bensheim/Auerbach
Quelle: picture alliance/Eibner-Pressefoto/Roland Sippel – Eibner-Pressefoto
Kretzschmar also talks about his spotlight relationship with swimming star Franziska van Almsick: “2000 to 2004 was the peak of my prominence because of the relationship with Franziska van Almsick. She was even more famous than me. I have been selfish in all my relationships.”
Kretzschmar was in a relationship with German swimming icon Franziska van Almsick from 2000 to 2004. He once had her image tattooed on his left calf
Source: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb/Andreas Altwein
Another topic is the difficult relationship with his mother Waltraud (†70, died in 2018), who was the best handball player in the world in the 1970s: “It was only in 2004, after the Olympic final, that she told me for the first time that she “I’m proud of me.” Kretzschmar was once a star of the cult handball clubs Gummersbach and Magdeburg as well as one of the pillars of the German national team (218 games/821 goals), with which he won silver at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. He “always thought, how can a mother be so lacking in empathy for her son?”
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What he didn’t know at the time and didn’t accept as an explanation for a long time: his mother suffered from severe depression. The processing only took place recently. “Love for Dorle (Kretzschmar’s partner Doreen, the editorial team) gave me stability and structure and a certain understanding of how to change my perspective,” said Kretzschmar in the Dyn documentary.
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