60 years of Bundesliga
Richard Golz became a Bundesliga legend with Hamburg and Freiburg and now works as a recruitment consultant in sport. In the latest edition of our ‘Life After Football’ series, the former goalkeeper talks about networking, judging people, a failed presidency campaign with Felix Magath and the lonely world of playing in net.
In our series Life After Football, bundesliga.com speaks to several legends about their time in the game and how their lives have changed since hanging up their boots.
bundesliga.com: Richard, as a goalkeeper for Hamburg, Freiburg and also Hannover, your role was clearly defined. Since 2018, you have been a partner at a recruitment consultancy and head up the sports practice. What exactly does that mean?
Richard Golz: “We support our clients in the recruitment of personnel and ensure that vacancies are filled sustainably. We accompany the search process through to successful completion. As a rule, these are key positions in the respective companies. Our clients can be clubs, associations or other organisations that are active in the world of sports. My first assignment was the position of ‘head of security’ at a second division football club. The job is very varied.”
Watch: Golz's top 5 saves in the Bundesliga
bundesliga.com: What qualities do you need for this job?
Golz: “Very different skills. Firstly, there’s the sales component. You have to listen to the grass grow and always be in contact with potential clients in order to get the order if necessary. You exchange ideas at conferences, by email or telephone, build on your existing relationships and are simply very close to the scene. It's about finding the right mix. Not getting on people's nerves too much, but also staying close to them. Negotiating skills when drafting contracts with clients are also part of it. When I was a player, the player consultant scene wasn't as developed as it is today and I thought for a long time that I could conduct my contract negotiations on my own. Until I realised that most of my colleagues were obviously better at negotiating than me or had someone to do it for them. You can actually learn to negotiate [Laughs].”
bundesliga.com: What exactly does the process look like?
Golz: “Firstly, we discuss the job profile or develop it together with the client. Based on this, we develop a search strategy. Who are the most promising candidates, who would even be interested in a change? And who fits where and how?”
bundesliga.com: As a goalkeeper, one of your jobs was to recognise potential danger at an early stage. How do you manage to find the right candidates for the right positions in your current job?
Golz: “Even in recruitment consultancy, you can't do much without a good team. When interviewing candidates, you need to have a good understanding of human nature and ask the right questions. In the end, personality is usually the deciding factor, despite all the expertise. Our job is to increase the likelihood that the person is the right fit.”
bundesliga.com: Does the experience of 20 years of professional football help you?
Golz: “I’ve certainly acquired a certain resilience through sport. And you need that in this job too. You often get told ‘no’ in acquisition, and you have to be able to deal with that.”
bundesliga.com: Is it possible to achieve a similar feeling of professional satisfaction as a recruitment consultant as you do as a goalkeeper in football?
Golz: “As a sportsman and therefore an adrenaline junkie, it’s obviously a different feeling when we’ve done a good job as a team. Not so many hormones are released, but it really fulfils me when our work adds value for the client and both sides are satisfied.”
bundesliga.com: Did your experience as a footballer help you to quickly gain a foothold in this job?
Golz: “I came into this business as a career change in 2018 and was given a six-month crash course in the industry. How do you negotiate? What do you need to consider in the contracts? How does business or successful communication work? My background as a professional footballer only helped me to a limited extent. A lot of things seemed familiar to me later on but had previously been rather unknown.”
bundesliga.com: Even in your playing days, you were regarded as a footballer who thinks outside the box. What did that look like in practice?
Golz: “I studied economics in my early 20, but only got two credits. And back in my Hamburg days, I completed an internship at a local radio station. My mentor there was Rollo Fuhrmann. I then went on to study sports management in Freiburg. For my last two years as a professional I was under contract with Hannover, as a back-up for Robert Enke. The sports director at the time was Christian Hochstätter. I went to him and offered myself as a goalkeeping coach in the youth system to see if that might be something for me. He said: ‘We don't have any money for it, but you're welcome to go for it.’ Which I did, twice a week with the U19s.”
bundesliga.com: What happened next?
Golz: “In 2008, it was time to retire. I was 39 years old, had had a great time at Hannover and enjoyed the great team spirit, but I’d sat on the bench for long enough. I went back to HSV, where I was in charge of training the goalkeepers in the academy and stayed in the job for the next five years. Back then, there was no specific training programme for goalkeeping coaches. It was very self-taught. I had to work out my concept first, which was a lot of fun. At the same time, I did a master's degree in sports and event management because I was thinking about leaving the football bubble. In 2013, as a native of West Berlin, I followed the call of my favourite youth club and spent two years as goalkeeping coach at Hertha in the Bundesliga. My last position and a real adventure was alongside Christoph Daum, when we tried to qualify Romania for the 2018 World Cup together, which unfortunately didn't work out. I finally decided to leave it all in 2017.”
bundesliga.com: However, you’ve recently been linked to Hamburg again. You wanted to stand alongside club legend Felix Magath in the upcoming presidential election. Yet, the club's advisory board did not allow Magath to stand for election. What went wrong?
Golz: “Shortly before Marcell Jansen was re-elected as president in 2021, I received an enquiry from the fan scene asking if I could imagine myself as president. The timing wasn't right, but it led to a discussion on the topic. Over the past few years, I’ve bumped into Felix Magath on various occasions and at some point the idea came up to run for election together to help our old club. Through my work as a consultant, I imagine I now know pretty well why certain clubs work and others don't. In the end, the advisory board decided not to allow Felix to run and, as we had developed and wanted to implement our concept together, I withdrew my candidature.”
bundesliga.com: Richard, what has football taught you for life?
Golz: “That you shouldn't always rely on first impressions if you really want to assess people. Contact creates closeness and closeness creates contact. At Freiburg, I once had a terrible row with Abder Ramdane in training. Up to that point, I didn't really know him and thought he was rather stupid. After the incident, we talked to each other and I got to know Ramdane as a person. From then on, we got on really well. You have to take your time to be able to judge a person. It's exactly the same in my job today.”
bundesliga.com: Which coach has left a lasting impression on you in this respect?
Golz: “Volker Finke had a great gift for recognising and releasing resources in people. He gave confidence to players who were largely unknown, gave them freedom and was successful with it. I only have to think of Tobias Willi, who developed sensationally under Finke and almost ended up at Bayern.”
bundesliga.com: You played more than 500 competitive matches for your clubs. How much of you is still a goalkeeper today?
Golz: “That will probably always be the case. As a goalkeeper, you recognise potential dangers earlier than others because your perspective means you always have the whole game in view. Your anticipation is strong, as is your sense of responsibility, because you want to prevent the opponent from scoring a goal. Then you pick the ball out of the net, your teammates go to the centre circle and automatically turn their backs to you. Then the goalkeeper is the loneliest person on earth.”
Interview by Alex Raack
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