“A crazy situation”

Lukas Klünter spoke to us in a virtual interview about foregoing wages, his views how the season could continue and showing his arty side quarantine.

Special times call for special measures. Since real-life interviews are hard to come by nowadays, we had to speak to Lukas Klünter over the phone in a virtual interview, so we could keep journalists up to date with the latest surrounding the squad. After the fabulous job that Marius Wolf dud, it was now time for Lukas to take to the virtual podium to speak with journalists. Among the topics up for discussion was his second love besides football - painting. “It’s been a hobby of mine for a long time now, it’s exciting and it helps you to let go,: said Klünter, who also spoke about more footballing topics such as the players foregoing part of their salaries to help other staff at the club. We collected all of the defender’s quotes during the interview, so here’s Lukas Klünter on…

…changes to the training program and how his body feels: We’ve been doing a lot on the bike recently, seeing as we’re not allowed to leave the house. I don’t feel any less fit personally, because I’ve got a lot of good equipment I can use at home, like my rebound net in the garden where I can play a bit of football, even if it is on my own. It’s not quite the same as being out on the training pitch, but it at least gives me the feeling of playing with the ball. I’m going to keep on with it now and hope that it does me some good for when we can get back out on the pitch. We’re switching to running a lot now that we’ve finished quarantine - our athletics trainer Henrik Kuchno has really thought it all out, and now my legs are killing me!

…his experiences quarantine, and his first few activities after it was over: I had to do some shopping first, given how empty my fridge was by the end. But the experience was fine, Hertha really helped us out because in case of emergency, they would order us something to help out. My girlfriend and I used to the time to do a few paintings and things like that, but we didn’t do too much. But really I just miss football to be honest and being with the boys all day letting the ball do the work.

…his interest in painting and parallels that can be drawn with another arty Herthaner ‘Zecke’ Neuendorf: It’s been a hobby of mine for a long time now, I started out with a couple of my mates when I was a young lad. Nowadays it’s just something I do now and then - it’s exciting and it helps you to let go. My mum gave me the idea to try and paint a picture worth putting up on my wall, and next time maybe I’ll try and do it seriously! I had no idea that “Zecke’ painted too, I’ll have to have a word with him about that next time I see him. Would I give myself a painter’s name? Nah, I’ll stick with ‘Klünti’ for now.

…the players foregoing part of their salaries: Our board is in close contact with every at the club and they spoke to us about doing something like that. We came to the conclusion that as a team we had to do something to help out. It was clear to us the if we could raise that sort of money we definitely should, and so i’m really happy that together with the higher-ups, we managed to get it done. To me it was a very responsible thing to make sure that everyone was okay during this crisis. Together, we did that, and we should be proud of ourselves that we supported everyone at this great club.

…the possibility of maybe going back out onto the pitch in four weeks, and possible difficulties restarting the league again: I imagine that in May it’ll start getting back underway again in terms of training, but at the same time it’s also possible that they suspend everything again. However, we know that everyone is trying to get the season back underway as soon as possible and bring a bit of normality back to everyone’s lives, which I think is the right thing to do. For us as players this is a crazy situation to be in, but we’re working towards a goal in terms of a date of return which is good. I’d rather be completely ready and then take a further postponement on the chin than not be ready and the league start again soon. We can also take plenty of positives from this break too: it’s not often that the training staff have such a good opportunity to look at players and target their weaknesses so that we can improve our games.

…possible difficulties in restarting the season and the advantages and disadvantages of a prolonged break: We’re trying to fight the feeling that we’re almost on holiday at the moment in order to stay fit and healthy so we can take that next step when we get back out onto the pitch. After two weeks of training we should all be match fit once again. Whether this break is a good thing r a bad thing for us remains to be seen - but we have to make the best of a bad situation either way. Everything is on the cards. We didn’t play great in our last few games but now we’ve had some time to recuperate and try and work on our game. When it finally gets back underway I”m sure we’ll all be ready and hopefully we’ll go out there rejuvenated and get a few more points on the board!