Veterans dominate the 15-man squad Germany has named for the Cali World Championships this coming July. Only two new players have broken through. Christian Förschler, a TSC Pforzheim defender, is one of them. At 22 years of age he is the German national team’s youngest player.
“I was a reserve national team player before, so I knew I had a decent chance of going to Colombia, but there were other strong candidates so I never took it for granted,” he said.
He took up the game at the age of 13 when Pforzheim recruited Förschler from the diving club’s snorkel group. He recalled the beginning of his career:
“After two training sessions I fell in love with this underwater rugby. Prior to that I had played soccer but only for fun not in a club or a league.”
Despite his size and strength, his approach to the game is calculating and effective. As much as possible, he prefers to play at high speed with finesse rather than brute force:
“I developed my style for two reasons: first as a teen it was really hard to match strength with the older, powerful guys and secondly the tactics of [national] youth team are to play as fast as you can, he explained.”
Not from a leading club
He has played his entire career with Pfrozheim, except for a season with rival Malsch, which is usually number two in the final national standings after Bamberg. His club, which competes in Germany’s southern division, has struggled this season. Last year they finished in fifth place and need to win matches in the final three games to avoid relegation. The club has only managed to rack up a total of 5 goals in league play so far. Two were by Förschler, who credits his teammate with elevating his game. He is the only player from Pforzheim on the national team.
“My club is very proud I made the national squad because it displays our good team work. I learned the game with them.”
International experience
Last year the Norwegian national team travelled to Germany for a friendly match between the 2011 World Championship gold and silver medalists. Förschler missed that competition but between 2011 and 2013 he made four appearances on Germany’s U21 squad, taking gold three times. This has given him exposure to playing several full 30-minute matches over several days time, an experience that he will take to Cali.
