Florian Keller (hockey player)

Florian Keller (born October 3, 1981 in Berlin ) is a German hockey player .

Keller plays in the national hockey team , was European champion in Padua in 1999 and won an Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing . In 2000 and 2006 he was the top scorer in the field hockey Bundesliga . He is currently a player of the Hamburg club THK Rissen with the shirt number 20.

family

Florian Keller comes from the most successful hockey family in the world. Like him in Beijing in 2008, the following family members became Olympic champions : his father Carsten Keller in 1972 in Munich, his half-brother Andreas Keller in Barcelona in 1992 and his sister Natascha Keller in Athens in 2004; his grandfather Erwin Keller won Olympic silver in Berlin in 1936 against the Indians who were then considered unbeatable . Since the last training camp before the Olympic Games in 2008, Keller has been nicknamed "Erwin", based on his grandfather, who was considered a bon vivant at the time, which national hockey coach Markus Weise jokingly came up with based on Keller's earlier lifestyle.

Keller's former partner is the German national soccer player Navina Omilade , whom Keller met at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and married in December 2012, from whom he divorced in 2014.

job

On the one hand, Keller wanted to concentrate on his professional career during his training as an insurance salesman , which he successfully completed in 2005 and initially continue to run his father's Allianz insurance agency together with his sister Natascha , both of which, however, refrained from doing so after Restructuring has massively cut grants for smaller agencies. On the other hand, Keller made the decision to go to the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 as an active player together with his sister and his girlfriend at the time, Navina Omilade , a goal to which he wanted to subordinate everything private while renouncing parties and alcohol. Keller can combine both: he now works for the Funk Group under Claudius Jochheim , the president of his Zehlendorfer Wespen club , who has introduced a professional development and career planning program for his players. There, in addition to his professional development, he was able to train every morning so that Keller could adequately prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Keller plans to work in sports management at Füchsen Berlin from January 2009 ; in preparation, he is completing an internship at Hannover 96 .

hockey

General

Florian Keller plays in a storm. He is characterized by his excellent technology and enormous responsiveness at the same time. This enables him to bring the balls that have been passed under control particularly quickly and, if necessary, out of motion, and to initiate an attack immediately, whereby his acceleration also benefits him - according to the national coach at the time, Markus Weise , Keller is the fastest in the first 30 meters Player in the national team. Keller's shortcoming at the end of 2007 was his inadequate stamina, an area in which, according to Weise, however, it is easiest to improve. Florian Keller's corner specialist and reliable seven-meter shot, he was in 2000 to the four German players who at the time of his time national coach Paul Lissek special training in schlenzen received.

Third party evaluation

According to an analysis by Tina Bachmann , the “head of defense” of the German national hockey team in 2007, Florian Keller is not only a good “goal getter”, but also a “crazy guy”, although you need those in the team. National coach Weise characterizes Keller as “idiosyncratic”, but not as “eccentric”, he is very good for the team; you have to respond to his temperament, he has to be able to “do his own thing.” National team colleague Carlos Nevado describes Keller as very important for the team; off the field, Keller likes to act as an entertainer for the team, on the field, Keller can single-handedly ensure a victory on good days.

Career as a hockey player

Florian Keller began his Bundesliga career at the parent club of the Keller family, the Berliner HC . After an interlude in Hamburg at Harvestehuder THC from 2001 to 2002, with which Keller fulfilled a childhood dream, he moved back to Berlin to join the Zehlendorfer Wasps .

In the national team, Keller made his debut on June 3, 1999 in a 4-6 defeat against Belgium in Krefeld. Shortly afterwards he was involved in winning the 8th European Men's Championship in Padua. After the Bundesliga season 2001, which Keller finished as top scorer, he was badly fouled at the Champions Trophy 2001 in the game against the Netherlands and broke his collarbone, after which he did not appear for the national team for a long time. According to the former national coach Bernhard Peters , the German national team would have become Olympic champions at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens if Keller had played at the time. Some time after Keller had celebrated her Olympic victory there with his sister Natascha, he returned to the national team. After the European Championships in 2005, however, Keller suffered a herniated disc and then retired from the national team for professional reasons. Following the Bundesliga season 2005/2006, which Keller was able to finish as top scorer again, he was brought back to the national team by national coach Markus Weise for the Champions Trophy 2007 after a two-year break, a decision that he later described as correct after the German team won the Champions Trophy; In addition to Matthias Witthaus , Keller was the team's most successful goalscorer with five goals and has since been considered a beacon of hope for the national team. At the 2008 Champions Trophy in Rotterdam, which was only moderately successful with fifth place for the German team, Keller was the tournament's top scorer with seven goals. At the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, Keller was Olympic champion with the national team and was the most successful German goalscorer with three goals together with Christopher Zeller and Matthias Witthaus. Together with the team, Keller received the silver bay leaf .

In the 2008/2009 indoor season, Keller played for DTV Hannover , which was related to his internship at Hannover 96 at the same time . Afterwards, Keller switched back to the Zehlendorfer Wasps, for whom he was also active in the 2008/09 field season, and in the 2012/13 indoor season he achieved the greatest success in the club's history, reaching the final of the 2013 German Indoor Championships . There was in the semifinals against the eventual runner-up Uhlenhorst Mülheim only after 8: 9 in the seven-meter shootout. Keller contributed three goals in this game and converted his seven-meter throw.

International participations and successes

• A international debut on June 3, 1999 GER-BEL 4-6 Krefeld
• 1999 1st place 8th European Men's Championship Padua
• 2001 1st place 10th European Indoor Men's Championship in Lucerne
• 2001 1st place 23rd Champions Trophy Men Rotterdam
• 2004 5th place 26th Champions Trophy Men Lahore
• 2005 bronze medal men's European championship Leipzig
• 2007 1st place 29th Champions Trophy Men Kuala Lumpur
• 2008 1st place Olympic qualification Kakamigahara
• 2008 5th place 30th Champions Trophy Men Rotterdam (top scorer)
• 2008 Gold Medal Olympic Games Beijing

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dietmar Wenck: Hockey gold runs in the family . In: Berliner Morgenpost , August 24, 2008.
2. ↑ ^{a b} The Kellers - Gold runs in the family. In: rp-online.de. August 23, 2008, accessed February 27, 2020 . 
3. ^ Doreen Mechsner: Medal hunt with the Keller family . In: Berliner Morgenpost , July 23, 2008.
4. ↑ Anke Myrrhe and Claus Vetter: "My life is not easy" - Interview with Florian Keller ( Memento from November 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) . On: www.11freunde.de , September 10, 2007.
5. ↑ Dietmar Wenck: Why Florian Keller is now attacking again internationally . In: Berliner Morgenpost , December 3, 2004 (subject to a charge)
6. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Alexandra Gross: Feelings of happiness during the comeback . In: Welt Online , November 30, 2007.
7. ↑ Ingo Schmidt-Tychsen: Sister, I'll follow you - Florian Keller wants to go to the Olympics with the hockey team . In: Der Tagesspiegel , March 29, 2008.
8. ^ Frank Weiland: Hockey with a professional perspective - The Zehlendorfer Wasps promote their talents . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 12, 2007.
9. ↑ 2nd hockey newsletter 2008 of the Zehlendorfer Wespen, first sent on October 31, 2008.
10. ↑ ^{a b c} Ingo Schmidt-Tychsen: On a new mission - Florian Keller strengthens the national hockey team . In: Der Tagesspiegel , November 26, 2007.
11. ^ ^{A b} Süddeutsche.de : The basement children's Olympic dream ( Memento from August 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , August 18, 2008.
12. ↑ Doreen Haustein: Four men for a thousand corners . In: Berliner Zeitung , March 10, 2000.
13. ↑ Jens Mickler: Tina Bachmann analyzes the men's national team - "Florian Keller is a crazy guy" ( Memento from June 28, 2007 in the web archive archive.today ) . On: sport.ARD.de , December 8, 2007.
14. ↑ Andreas Hardt: Fifth part of the Keller saga . In: Rundschau-Online , August 11, 2008.
15. ↑ Doreen Haustein: Bundesliga East complains about further departures . In: Berliner Zeitung , November 25, 2001.
16. ↑ Welt Online : Cheers and pain for Hamburg's hockey stars , November 12, 2001.
17. ↑ Welt Online : Hockey players celebrate successful turnaround , December 8, 2007.
18. ↑ Thomas Prüfer: Men's hockey are record winners . In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 9, 2007.
19. ^ SÜDKURIER: Hockey: World Cup heroes out after a bad trophy ( memento from April 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , June 29, 2008.
20. ↑ hockey.de November 20, 2008: The Olympic hockey winners received the silver laurel leaf from the hands of Federal President Horst Köhler on Thursday in the Tempodrom in Berlin ...
21. ↑ Die Welt: Alster tortures itself to victory . In: Die Welt , December 22, 2008.

Web links

• Florian Keller's national team at the German Hockey Association
• Photo by Florian Keller on www.faz.net