Max Zimmermann (29) has made his decision. It has often been like this – and in fact always in favor of his football career. For example, when he swapped the football boots he had worn at Forst Borgsdorf and Blau-Weiss Hohen Neuendorf for a helmet, shoulder pads and football boots in 2012 and moved on to Berlin Adlers. Or when he quit his job as a sports teacher at Marie Curie High School in Hohen Neuendorf in 2019 because he landed a contract with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. Then the pandemic interrupted his engagement in Canada. After a season in Finland, Zimmermann returned to the Eagles in Berlin. Before this football season, the best German receiver, who is one of the best professionals in Europe, decided again: he left Adler of the German Football League (GFL) and signed with the Berlin Thunder in the European Football League (ELF).
Former NFL professional Björn Werner’s franchise first home game is this Sunday (1 p.m., Jahn-Sportpark) against the bowling champion Vienna Vikings. Berlin Thunder gave the title fight as their goal. Also because of their new players, like quarterback Donovan Isom (from club GFL Berlin Rebels), like wide receiver Aaron Jackson (from club GFL Cologne Crocodiles), like cornerback Jonas Gacek (from club GFL Potsdam Royals) and just because of Zimmermann. The Eagles miss him on a personal and athletic level, not only on the men’s team, but also as a positional coach for the A-Juniors.
New wide receiver at the Berlin Thunder: Max ZimmermannEric Mühle/Berlin Thunder
His decision to move from the club and association structures of the GFL, which is organized within the German American Football Association (AFVD), to the commercial professional league EFL, Zimmermann says, “was never against the Adler as a club, but against them. GFL, this league that has caused disappointments for years. I see that the ELF has the potential to grow the sport, to provide a platform, to professionalize the sport . I want to be part of the progress. But I’ve always been a fan of joining forces, like between Eagles and Thunder.”
How to do is a good question. In that season alone, the Adlers, who were in the quarter-finals of the GFL play-offs last year, lost twelve players to league rivals ELF, including ten to the Berlin Thunder. What makes Adler quarterback Zachary Cavanaugh (36), who also coaches the Adler-A-Jugend, who was last in the German Youth Bowl, really angry is that Thunder has already poached him the sixth U19 player.
“It’s not possible that they are harassing my boys at work to convince them to rob us. They are guys, 17, 18, who have never played a snap of their fingers in men’s football. They need of them in the ELF to fill their squad cheaply, and they promise them social media attention and their own photographer instead of developing them further,” says American footballer Cavanaugh from Boston, who has lived in Berlin since a long time. “It’s pure capitalism at the expense of the boys. And this harms German football.
Eagles quarterback and A-Youth coach Zachary CavanaughSonja Matysiak/Berlin Adler
The ELF has several investors – and prominent television experts in commissioner Patrick Esume and co-owner of Thunder Björn Werner, who not only present league information on ProSieben, ProSieben Maxx and ran.de, but also on various social media channels, in podcasts. or live videos. At the same time, they are present in the media as commentators on the American professional league NFL and thus embody a certain proximity to the dream goal of ambitious footballers. You know: Björn Werner was the Indianapolis Colts’ No. 1 pick in 2013.
Max Zimmerman thinks the best footballers “will always go to the most attractive league where they can have fun and where their family can watch them on TV. I believe you can play top football in Europe too.” quarterback Adler Cavanaugh doubts the ELF currently offers more attractive football than the GFL: “Where’s the quality when you fill your team with third league players and 19 year olds? Why should the boys improve just because they’re on TV? Social media attention is the new currency. But the NFL doesn’t scout Instagram.”
In Germany, non-profit sports clubs such as the Adler, Berlin Rebels, Potsdam Royals or Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns train talented players for five or six years in their youth teams and then usually introduce them to GFL 1 via their second men’s teams in the lower leagues. Now that the ELF has been a competitive European league for three years and has grown from eight teams in the first year to 17, including eight from Germany, the battle for players from all venues is in full swing.
Squads of 40 or 50 people have to be filled – and if the commercial league currently uses club structures with virtually no compensation, the number of German players needed increases. But where should they come from if the ELF, as announced, wants to expand to 24 teams soon? There is no regulation between leagues, no ban on changes during the season, no training compensation like in football for clubs that have invested a lot of money in coaches, development and children’s equipment for years.
This problem is not new. And not limited to Berlin and its surroundings, where there are around 27 American football clubs and around 3,000 active players. Two years ago, when Thunder was founded, Berlin Rebels chairman Andreas Riedel complained about the poaching of the ELF for nothing in return and lamented the cannibalization.
Max Zimmermann sees the dilemma. He learned from his time in the Canadian professional league that football there “is first and foremost a business, it’s not about you as a person”. At Thunder, on the other hand, he feels valued. This was also the case for the Eagles, but due to the amateur management of the AFVD for many years, there is a lack of confidence in the positive development of the association. Since November 2022, however, it has been led by a new, progressive executive committee which, in addition to presenting the GFL games on the Sportdeutschland TV platform, also takes care of more social media activities.
Many young footballers dream of the dream that Zimmermann dreamed of: a commitment to the NFL is the goal, the choice of a team in the best league in the world. This is fueled by the American college system, where young footballers have four years to train for strength, endurance and competitive toughness for the men’s league. If you play in a professional league, you lose the opportunity to go to college.
Albert Wiesingstrauch (21) was one of the first from Adler A youth team to move to Thunder last season. In fact, he barely made it in the first year and had an American running back ahead of him on the team. He could get more playing time this season, Björn Werner has named him as one of the next hometown heroes for Team Thunder.
As things stand, competition in German football is not currently driving business, but rather inhibiting it. Some people wonder how ELF clubs in Berlin, Cologne, Leipzig, Stuttgart or elsewhere are doing with their players’ health insurance or minimum wage demands and what a social security check would show. “It would be important to find a solution for both parties, to give something back to the clubs”, explains Zimmermann, “perhaps with the infrastructure, in the field of public relations, in the sponsorship, in the medical field, with the team bus for young teams. There is a saying that goes: Alone we go fast. Together you go far.
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