“We can only say thank you” were the supposed last words of captain Lukas Kampa about Georg Grozer's great career in the German national volleyball team.

Kampa said it in January 2020, in a subdued tone, because the German team had just lost the battle for the only European starting position 0: 3 against France in the Olympic qualification in Berlin.

It should also be the last game of star attacker Grozer in the German jersey, should it not work with the ticket for Tokyo - he had announced it beforehand.

Achim Dreis

Sports editor.

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Almost twenty months later it shows again that you should never say “never” in life.

And twice not as an athlete.

At the upcoming European Championship in Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Finland, the German team will appear for the first time this Friday in Tallinn against Croatia (4 p.m.).

With Grozer in his traditional position as a diagonal attacker.

“I play as long as they don't kick me out and I don't embarrass myself,” the now 36-year-old has fundamentally changed his attitude towards the end of his career in the meantime.

Neither is to be expected in view of his outstanding abilities as an attacker and catcher and the lack of other world-class players in German volleyball. With his return to the team, something like a winning mentality should also return. Grozer firmly believes that a medal or even a place in the European Championship final is possible: "I have the hope that we will go far," he said before the tournament, in which the Germans in the preliminary round were still on Estonia, France, Meet Latvia and Slovakia.

Rank 13 out of 16 teams in the Nations League, which was held in June without Grozer's help, did not speak for it.

But how close the performance density is in an international comparison was shown not least by the performance of the French in Tokyo: The team that only beat Germany out of the competition in the final qualification with 25:23 in the decisive set became Olympic champions in summer 2021.

Saying goodbye to his Olympic dream and the national team was "painful", Grozer confessed.

Fortunately, however, his daughters gave him the kick not to indulge in self-pity.

Leana and Doreen, eleven and 14 years old, urged dad to start again.

Or, as Grozer put it heartily: "The children always kick my ass that I should play the national team for as long as I don't tip over there."

Coach Andrea Giani welcomed the star, who had been thought lost, with open arms: The diagonal attacker is a “world class player”, brings “punch” and makes us “stronger”, enthused the Italian, who was a player himself during his playing days that made the difference.

But even the highly praised one knows that nothing comes from nothing.

Globetrotter Grozer, who has made good money from his profession in Russia, China and Poland in the course of his club career, is getting fit for his late career this season at Vero Volley Monza.

The former hundred-pound chunk has worked off around ten kilos.

"Better for the knee," said Grozer, looking beyond the European Championship to the next season.

Because he would still like to contest the 2022 World Cup in Russia.

Then Captain Kampa could be on board again. Thanks to the Kampa / Grozer axis, Germany won bronze in the 2014 World Cup and silver in 2017. But the player had his knee operated on in the summer and this time will be replaced by Jan Zimmermann or Johannes Tille. But as Kampa said when he supposedly said goodbye to Grozer: "Our paths will cross again, or we will continue together."