This week, Christoph Zimmermann sat down with canaries.co.uk to discuss his five years at Norwich City.
The defender has now completed a move to 2. Bundesliga side SV Darmstadt 98.
canaries.co.uk: Zimbo, five years a Norwich City player and now the time has come to say goodbye. Can you try to sum up your emotions for us at the moment?
CZ: At the moment, it’s hard to say. Obviously, I’m a bit torn because it’s a bit of a decision of head versus heart because those five years have been amazing, crucial, and the best of my career.
So many things have happened in those five years with the football club - two promotions, great seasons and some games as a captain. There were some lows of relegations and unfortunately too many injuries in the last two and a half years, so it’s been a lot that has happened as a player but also for me as a person.
I came here when I was 24, basically on my own, and within those last years I got engaged, got married to my wife and had a child here. Our first child was born here and the second is on the way. Unfortunately they cannot be born here, but it formed me as a player on the one hand and even more importantly as a person, going from a young adult to a grown man and a family father.
This place just held so many good things for me and so many good memories, so it’s been crucial in my career and in my life. Those five years have been amazing and I’ll always look back on them with a very big smile on my face.
As I said, it’s hard because my heart is here and will always be in this place because it’s been so good for me. All the time, everybody at the football club has been brilliant to me on the pitch, off the pitch and around the club.
The people in the city and the county have been amazing. It’s very difficult to leave that behind and that’s what I said when there was a chance to leave. It needs to be something I’m convinced of and something good, because I’m not willing to give up what I and we as a family have here in this area for just something else. It needs to be something good.
canaries.co.uk: Let us take you back to June 2017 and your first interview with the club, when you said you’d always dreamed of playing in the Premier League from a young age. You and your brother would stay up late in Germany to watch the Premier League highlights. Daniel Farke and Stuart Webber brought you to Norwich and that young boy’s dream came true.
CZ: First of all, I think I mentioned in that interview that you have those dreams when you’re younger but reality catches up with you and you see that there are so many good players out there that it’s hard to even make it as a professional.
It took me until I was 24 to really call myself a professional for the first time because in Germany in the lower leagues I was sort of in between. When I signed, it was in the Championship and in two years we got promoted. That dream became reality.
Things probably went quicker than I would have expected, given how the first season went with a mid-table finish, then in the second season it clicked and all worked out. I do remember that interview that I gave at the training ground in Colney. Back then, I didn’t know what to expect or what was coming.
The ties with Daniel were obvious. He was the one contacting me and asking me if there was an option for me to join Norwich. That also went really quickly and I was very glad that Daniel and Stuart gave me the opportunity, took a chance on me and it was also a risk for them because I came from the fourth tier in Germany and I didn’t have a contract anymore.
No-one knew how it was going to end, but I think especially at that time, those were the two people who believed in me and saw that there was potential to make it happen. It has entirely changed my life for the better.
If that wouldn’t have happened, I probably would have stopped playing at that age and would have studied or done something like a proper job with a bit more security that you can do until you retire at 60 or 65.
Instead, those two gave me a great opportunity to follow my dream and then play in the Premier League. It was only 20 games for me and could’ve been more, but I don’t have any regrets about that. I’m just happy that it happened.
canaries.co.uk: That first promotion to the Premier League was a season that you were heavily involved in, oftentimes as captain. It was a culturally diverse team of players from many different countries around the world who wanted to prove their talent at Norwich. Looking back, that must have been a special group to be a part of and to lead onto the pitch.
CZ: Definitely. A promotion is always nice and I’m happy we had two of them. To me personally, the first one felt more special because it was the first time it happened. The group we had together was unbelievable.
I think with the club’s financial situation at that point, we had to be a bit creative, innovative and we basically signed Emi Buendia from nowhere, but he was an amazing club signing and one of the many that the club has done really well with.
That first season that we got promoted was exciting football. We weren’t always perfectly solid at the back but I think we scored 93 goals if I remember correctly. We had 94 points with so many dramatic, late winners.
Probably the best example was the Millwall game at home where we scored twice in added time to turn the game into a 4-3. That’s amongst my best memories. That emotion, it’s hard to believe that it’s already three and half years ago.
It was just great to see how all those players from different parts of, not just Europe, but the world, were playing together. Towards the end of the season, we had a fairly young back four most of the time with Max, myself, Ben Godfrey and Jamal.
I mentioned after the Leeds game when we won 3-1 away at Elland Road that it was just a great feeling because you’ve built a relationship with those players and you’re looking right and left next to you and thinking ‘we’re a unit that belongs together’.
We wanted to make our dream come true and win promotion. Having achieved that here against Blackburn, winning the league and the promotion party and parade through the city… there are so many good memories to be able to look back on.
canaries.co.uk: Have you had the chance to speak with Dean and the squad and say your goodbyes?
CZ: That was one thing that was really important to me. I spoke to Stuart a few days ago when it was looking like this move was really going to happen. He said the same thing - we were both keen when I’m really going that we do it right. Those five years have been right from start to finish.
There have been examples with Mario Vrančić and Alex Tettey, when they left, the way they got to say goodbye was something that I would wish for myself as well. I feel after the time here that it’s not just what I deserve but what the club deserves.
It’s not just a case of ‘he’s left and nowhere to be seen ever again’. That’s the last thing I would’ve wanted to happen, so we tried to find a solution. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to the group and to tell the players and the staff that Marseille was my last game for the football club, to speak to them for a few minutes, thanking them and wishing them all the best.
I just wanted to reassure them that this time here and this place just means the world to me and that everyone has contributed in their own way and made it very special.
The night before, I talked to Stuart and also a bit later I talked to the gaffer, the assistant and Allan, our new set-piece coach and also to the goalkeeping coach. I had a good talk to them and everyone of them from Dean, Shakey and Liam were all understanding and we had a conversation that was very open, honest and respectful.
That’s the way the whole five years have been, so I’m happy I had the chance to end it that way. Quite often in football when things go so quickly you don’t really have the chance to say goodbye.
That’s something that’s really important to me because I feel I need to close this chapter first and do that properly before I can head onto the next.
I think the people who have known me a while now have seen that I was committed and that I’ve tried to give everything for this football club. That’s what I also want to give to my new club, because wherever you’re working or playing, that’s what the club deserves. It’s important to finish one thing right and then be able to start the next.
canaries.co.uk: In terms of the new chapter, what can you tell us about your next club and why you’ve chosen to move there?
CZ: My new club, SV Darmstadt 98, is playing in the second league in Germany. Last season, they got quite close to reaching the top three to win direct promotion. There was a two-leg play-off against the third bottom team in the Bundesliga, so they were very close but unfortunately just finished fourth.
The second league in Germany is similar to the Championship - always very competitive and before it you can never really predict who is going to finish top and who is going to finish bottom. That’s what makes it very exciting, but it’s 18 teams rather than 24.
I’ve been in contact with them since about two and a half weeks ago. I was obviously thinking this summer that I need to play games because I’ve had the last two years basically without any game time.
In my head with my injuries, I wasn’t expecting that there would still be a club that would want to sign me for good. I just thought clubs would probably take the security route of a loan for six months. If something happens, like it can and did in the last two years, at least then you can always send him back if it doesn’t work.
But the club showed great interest in me and offered me a permanent deal over three years, so that’s when things got really interesting and I had a good talk to the manager. It all sounded very promising.
Things have sped up in the last couple of days and I was more and more open to that option. I don’t want to be mistaken. It’s not a case of going back home to Germany, it’s the opposite. It’s a side effect that my family - my parents and my wife’s parents - are a bit closer, but that’s not the reason.
The reason is from what I’ve heard from the club and what Stuart also told me about the club, and what Onel told me about the manager, who he’s worked with at Braunschweig.
It’s a club that’s run well, that’s very solid, that also prides itself on being a family club, similar to here. It’s gone well for me one time so I hope it’s going to go well a second time.
I hope everything works out for me, but it’s not like I want to go home because my wife’s pregnant or I’m German. It’s not the personal reasons that made the decision, it’s the sporting perspective. The way they are trying to achieve things made sense to me.
I think it’s a good time, given my situation and given my age, to move on. As much as I loved the reception I always got here from the crowd at the ground, the last few years were more like getting a warm welcome from the Snakepit when I was warming up.
I appreciate it, but I don’t want to look back and say that I was just warming up on the sidelines for the last two or three years and people were loving me. I’m a footballer after all and I want to be on the pitch and having the opportunity to get more game time again is the key factor in the decision.
canaries.co.uk: It sounds like a good fit and we wish you all the best over there and look forward to seeing how it goes. Turning attention back to Norwich, what do you think you’ll miss most about this dressing room, playing for this team and this club, and living in this city and the county of Norfolk?
CZ: Where do I start? There are so many great things about the place itself. Starting with the county, we’ve been lucky to explore a lot of Norfolk and the seaside. Not just Norfolk but also a bit of Suffolk, but not too much.
There’s lovely places all around the coast and the countryside. We were exploring before we had our children and with our son and I always enjoyed the view when we were flying back in from away games, because Norfolk from the air is absolutely stunning and beautiful.
Seeing the countryside and the Broads, every time you come back here is like coming back home. It’s a nice feeling that you get when you finally get to Norwich. Everywhere I’ve been, the people have been so friendly and so kind.
I know it’s a one club county, but I don’t think you’re being recognised everywhere as a footballer. It’s not just because you’re a Norwich player that people are being kind to you, it’s just the general attitude of most of the people in this area that has made it very special and also very easy for me to settle in here.
Norwich as a city to me and to our family has got everything we need. It’s the right size, it’s got a beautiful city centre and I’ve stopped counting but there are a couple of hundred churches I think.
Every corner, there’s a coffee shop, a hairdresser and a church again. That’s certainly one of the key features. The cathedral is beautiful. Both of them are, the other one sometimes gets forgotten about. There are so many nice places.
For us it was good because we’ve stayed here for so long that we knew our way to the nursery for our son, to the doctors, to the hospital, where we would go in the city centre for a coffee, lunch or dinner.
We have made so many friends around here, so this place is our home. It’s not like Germany is really our home. Even though it’s where me and my wife were born, we consider Norwich our home and we’ve been here for a good amount of time, because we know so many things about this place and all the routines that we have are based around here.
It was just natural for us to live here, speak English, and great to see our son growing up with English and German languages, which is something we’re going to miss because that’s a great thing for children.
The football club - ever since I walked through the door and Stuart picked me up from the airport for my medical just over five years ago - everyone welcomed me with open arms and open hearts.
It’s not like I was the biggest ever club signing or a rising star. I was basically a nobody when I came here and it was great to see that people didn’t care about that. They gave me a chance, not based on what I’d done so far, but just because the club signed me. People thought it was worth giving me a shot.
All the people at the training ground, from the groundsmen, kitchen staff, physios, the people who work in the offices doing the recruiting or player liaison stuff - you get along with everybody, even the security guy called Kevin.
Yesterday, when I said goodbye, he gave me his number and said if I needed anything to let him know. That just sums it up in a good way. You’re probably not close to the security man in your time but it’s always a very personal relationship that I felt really came from the heart.
Obviously, heading onto Stuart, I had a very good relationship with him and I hope that’s always going to be the case even after I’ve left the club. Delia and Michael celebrated their 25 year anniversary at the club last November and I was invited to it.
They showed me what a special part I also played for the football club. There weren’t many players invited, so I felt very lucky being amongst them and sharing this milestone with them.
I could go through every single name at the football club and say something very positive about them, but I’m afraid we won’t have time for that. The general attitude that people in and around the club have embraced me… this place has been my home for the last five years.
Simple things like how I had to move houses two times - I lived very close to the stadium in one house and then just for eight or nine months, we’ve lived in another house.
The neighbours we have there, we didn’t know them before. Alex Tettey probably did because it was his old place! But when we moved in there, it clicked from the first minute and it was great for me to see when I was at away games that my wife had friends next door.
Ben and Kelly have two children as well, so it worked well with our boy. As weird as it sounds, we’ve known them for hardly a year and they’ve turned into our best friends. Those are the things I’m going to miss.
It’s not easy to say goodbye, I’m not going to lie, but it’s the life of a footballer and a decision I have to take. We will miss everyone at this place.
canaries.co.uk: You see these people inside and outside of the club on a daily basis and you’ve become a big part of the Norwich City family. One moment that the Norwich fans will always remember is the famous headed tackle against Wolves. Where does that rank among your memories?
CZ: It’s funny, quite often that still gets brought up somewhere, like ‘on this day three years ago Zimbo tackled someone with his head’. It’s more of a fun moment, I would say.
The good thing is everyone remembers that and hardly anyone remembers that I’d lost the ball. It’s funny to see, myself and Grant slipped in the box and it looked very slapstick.
We got it away in the end and then Nelson scored in the last minute, so it was a good game to remember, because we drew against Wolves, who were top of the table at that time. Its more one of the fun moments, not one of the best ones!
canaries.co.uk: Off the pitch, you’ve also done a lot of work with the Community Sports Foundation at Norwich. How important was that to you?
CZ: The principal approach that a football club works so closely with a charity was something new to me. I think I stressed that in my first interview as well, because I didn’t quite know what the job of the sports foundation was.
In Germany it’s more towards Christmas time that a football club co-operates with a charity or you do something nice for children or for people who might not have as nice a Christmas as they should have.
That’s just the common thing I know about, I didn’t know \[it was possible\] for them to work on a constant day-by-day level with a football club where you can actually do so much good in the area.
The community work was always very important to me because I feel that we are in a very privileged position as footballers with such a good life. Sometimes it’s very fine margins that make the difference between making it as a professional, having such a great life, being loved by fans and being able to play for great clubs and not quite making it. On the other side, you’ll be the one who doesn’t get support but needs it.
I just felt that there’s so many good people in this area and so many good things that the sports foundation is doing for people, who are good people, and just need a little bit of help and a little bit of support.
With their disabilities, there are people who have been in a difficult position ever since they were born.
When I was getting close to the stadium, I would walk over to Carrow Park and watch or sometimes join in some sessions and it was great to see how little it takes as a footballer to put a smile on children’s faces and, coming back to the privileged position we are in, for me as a Norwich City player, certainly in this area, it takes five seconds to have a picture taken with someone or to sign a shirt or to have a quick chat with someone and they’re happy and it makes their day.
It doesn’t cost me a thing, maybe five seconds of my time, but the reward someone else gets from it is so high and it wouldn’t be the same if I wasn’t playing for a football club, but just the simple factor of my profession changes so much and can sometimes make their day or their week or help them overcome difficult positions.
It's part of our job and our duty as a footballer to make the most of our situation, the most of our status and its not like we have to work extra five hours every day to do something good. It doesn’t really take much and therefore I think that was something I was really aware of.
It probably has something to do with the way I was brought up at home by my parents. You always looks after each other and you always look after certainly people who are not as lucky as you have been in life, therefore this is always at my heart to get on and off the pitch too, to leave a legacy once my time here comes to an end.
canaries.co.uk: Moments like these have helped you build a strong connection with the fans. There is even a 'Zimbo Appreciation Society'! Win, lose or draw, we see you applauding the fans at Carrow Road after a game. What do the supporters mean to you, Christoph?
CZ: For a long time, I didn’t know about the Zimbo Appreciation Society, because I’m not active on social media, but then it was brought to my attention by my sister-in-law, and she found some funny things on there.
It’s nice, it’s great to see that and it means a lot to me, how much the supporters value me as a person. The one thing is the football, but the other thing is also the person that they see.
The connection that I had to the supporters always meant a lot to me because before my playing days here, it was the under-23s for Borussia Dortmund and under-23s at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Certainly, in Dortmund, you do get a good crowd and you get supporters there.
But this was the first time we really had fans - 27,000 people in the ground every game. It was always sold out and all the season tickets were gone, even when we had a fairly poor Premier League season.
People will always come and support us, so for me it was important to give back. That started probably after the QPR game, my third league game in my first season. It was the first win here at home and I was just overwhelmed by my first victory as a professional, I would say.
I think I went around and did a lap of honour and applauded the fans and took some pictures because I was just over the moon that game and with so many people around, it just felt right.
Ever since, it was just common to at least applaud the supporters to thank them after the game for their support. For away games, we had so many people travel a long distance because from Norwich, anything is far!
To see 5,000 people travel to Wigan in the first promotion season, to see that support on the road was amazing. People sacrifice not just their money but so many hours, their whole day, their whole weekend to see us play.
You’re never quite sure what you get in the Championship, but mainly we got good results and good games to watch, but in the Premier League there have been some moments that weren’t so great, but still, the support was always there.
I always felt that people were good to me and respected me just because they’ve seen I’ve given it all I’ve got. I’m not the most talented and most gifted player but I always play with desire and with my heart and I think that’s what they’ve seen and that’s probably something not everyone always sees.
That’s what made it so special because I always felt that even when I had bad games or when I make mistakes, people were always good to me. I think that’s where the respect came from. I think it was definitely mutual, I think the supporters liked me and I just love playing in front of them.