Bye, Timo - (Part 1 with Jörg Roßkopf): ‘Timo's real achievement is his incredible consistency’

Germany's top star Timo Boll has begun his announced farewell tour of the German Table Tennis League (TTBL) with Borussia Düsseldorf. From now on, important companions of the most successful player in the history of the Bundesliga will be sharing their thoughts on Timo Boll and his incomparable career here at monthly intervals. In the first part of our series ‘Bye, Timo’, we let national coach, former doubles world champion and former Boll team-mate Jörg Roßkopf have his say.

‘I didn't follow Timo Boll throughout his great career, but for most of it and also very closely. If you want to summarise these many years with all their facets, it is certainly anything but exaggerated to say that Timo has shaped an era. And I always enjoyed working with him - first as a team-mate and also as a mentor, so to speak, at TTV Gönnern and in the national team, and later and right up to the end as national coach.

Timo in the Bundesliga was initially called Gönnern and was already a success back then, after all, we won two cups and, above all, two Champions League titles. However, it was clear from the outset that his path would eventually lead him to Borussia Düsseldorf in 2007.

It was a perfect deal for Timo and Düsseldorf. The club celebrated more titles than ever before (even though we were also often successful during my time in Düsseldorf), Timo was certainly offered unique conditions in every respect and appropriate to his exceptional position for the international challenges of his great career. Also because both have become more and more interesting for sponsors in their 18 years together, you can only speak of a win-win situation.

Impressive record in the Bundesliga

In the Bundesliga, Timo has impressed me - apart from his successes - with one aspect in particular: Timo has always played at an extremely good, even outstanding level for so many years with an almost unbelievable consistency. Between the ages of 15 and a good 40, i.e. 25 years, he achieved such an unbelievably good record that nobody before him has managed it and probably nobody after him will manage it either. His many other records, which are now almost impossible to count, can hardly be broken - it can't really happen.

The real achievement, apart from the results, lies much more in his incredible consistency. With international duties for players of Timo's quality, at some point the Bundesliga is just everyday business, and yet Timo has always been able to deliver at just 80 per cent thanks to his incredibly high basic level.

Win-win situation for TTBL and Timo

The TTBL has also benefited greatly from and through Timo, and the league can't thank Timo enough for staying in the TTBL as a top 10 player all these years. Where Timo had regular training, regular matches and was able to gain confidence for international tournaments through his competitions, the league also thrived on a player like Timo and gained in prestige, even though some other top players had long since left due to scheduling constraints. But Timo was never the type of player who would have moved abroad for a little more money and fewer competitions. As far as I know, that was never an issue for Timo.

Farewell tour has begun

Now that Timo's international career has come to an end at the Olympic Games in Paris, where very few - if any - would have made it in his situation, his farewell tour of the TTBL clubs has begun. Every single club can count itself lucky if Timo wants to play in front of and for the local fans once again.

If I were my Düsseldorf coach colleague Danny Heister, I would often tell my players to work their butts off and do everything in their power to get Borussia back into the play-off round despite the even stronger competition this time. But I'm sure everyone in Düsseldorf realises anyway that it would be important for Timo to leave the big stage either at least in a semi-final in Düsseldorf or, even better, in the TTBL final in Frankfurt - it would also be a fitting and appropriate setting. Even if it's difficult for him to deal with such emotional moments, as we've already seen in Paris, it would be a great way for Timo to end his career.’

Recorded by Florian Manzke