Former Borussia Dortmund player and long-serving international Niklas Süle described on the podcast After The Final Whistle how working with a Buddhist monk and practising meditation influenced his decision to end his football career. Süle ended his career after more than a decade in professional football.
Life controlled by football
Süle said that as a professional footballer for 13 years he lived from week to week and could not plan anything because his life was controlled by decisions such as whether a coach granted a day off after a match.
Süle said: “First of all, you try to find some stability in your life and, more or less, bring a different routine into the way you behave, because for 13 years you lived from week to week. You can't plan anything. If the coach says, 'Sunday is a day off,' but you lose, you might have to come to the training centre on Sunday. Your life is controlled.”
He said he struggled to manage his inner restlessness and turned to a form of Buddhism for help. Süle also revealed that he had mental health problems during his time at Borussia Dortmund.
“You have certain habits and some things where you think: OK, this isn't helping me any more. Maybe because I've been doing it for too long, maybe because I've won everything I really wanted to win. Maybe because I've earned some money in my career. There are various reasons,” Süle said.
He added: “I could no longer sort it out in my own mind. I knew I needed help. I wouldn't have thought that a form of Buddhism would help me so much. In the past, I always thought perhaps they were a bit crazy.”
The monk's 50-page profile
Süle said the Buddhist monk did not know him when he first visited, but had written a 50-page document about his personality without ever having met him.
“When I went there for the first time, he didn't know me. He had written a 50-page document about my personality — without ever having met me. It was one of the most impressive and eerie things I've ever seen,” Süle said.
He said: “I thought that even if he'd asked someone, 'Do you know him, or can you tell me something about Niklas?', it couldn't be this crazy. I gave those pages to my wife and said: Read this and tell me I'm not crazy. Then I started doing it.”
Practising meditation
Süle said meditating before matches or after training when he had stressful moments was good for him. He tried to meditate every day.
“This form of Buddhism had an influence and helped me a great deal in my case, as did meditating, for example. Meditating before matches or after training when you have a few stressful moments. It was good for me,” Süle said.
“You have to try to do it as often as possible. If you do it once and then don't meditate for a week, it sets you back a bit,” he said.
Süle described meditation as trying to switch off his thoughts and think of nothing, while saying the human mind is not designed to think of nothing.
“That's meditation: you try to switch off your thoughts and think of nothing, because the human mind isn't designed to think of nothing. You always have thoughts in your head, and that's exactly what meditation does: it tries to cut them off,” Süle said.
He said: “I tried to do it every day. After a week or two, it got better and better. Suddenly I had feelings I'd never felt before.”
The decision to leave football
Süle said the impact of meditation was unexpected and later influenced his decision to end his career.
“It was crazy. I'd better not talk about it, but it was crazy. I didn't know it would have such a big impact, but later it also influenced my decision to end my career,” Süle said.
He said the Buddhist monk helped him very much but never told him to stop playing football, and that the work they did together led him to make the decision to give up football himself.
Süle said: “This is my view of life: everything happens for a reason. I'm a big believer in karma. If I do something good, I'm more likely to get something good back than if I'm a shitty person and do bad things.”
