Norwich City defender Christoph Zimmermann met with High Performance Sport students at the University of East Anglia (UEA) on Tuesday to talk about athlete wellbeing.
Running through a presentation on his own career, which started at SC West in Düsseldorf, Zimmermann taught students about soft skills such as commitment, attitude, the will to win and fighting when things get tough.
“It was a pleasure for me to share my story,” he told canaries.co.uk. “We had a bit of time for a Q&A and the students seemed very interested, asking loads of questions.
“Community work is a key factor of our job that we should never neglect. As footballers, we can have a huge effect on people because of the profession we have, whether it’s through the club or the Community Sports Foundation.”
UEA’s Performance Sport Programme provides a range of team sports including football, basketball, rugby, netball and American football.
“I hope everyone can find something that will help them from my speech,” Zimmermann said. “The key thing for me is to have a good support network in the background. For me it’s my family. If you have that, it will make things a lot easier in life.
“But setbacks are a part of life. Just because it doesn’t happen under one manager, teacher or professor, in one country, university or subject, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. There are always other options and sometimes all it takes is one person to believe in you.”
Course director Julia Robathan added: "I'm delighted that Christoph offered his time to talk about his experiences as an elite athlete and his pathway to success.
"This is such vital insight for the future workforce and I hope he enjoyed his time with us."