The enemy was not in his bed.

He was sitting in the press box.

Or stood in the mixed zone.

Hardly any athlete of this celebrity has given as few interviews as Christian Zeitz.

After six championship titles, three cup successes and three victories in the Champions League (all with THW Kiel), the gifted handball player is now ending his career – and talking.

"I let my performance on the field speak for itself," said the native of Heidelberg, "and I would do it again today.

If I felt I was being treated unfairly, I kept quiet.” If necessary, even for a year.

Zeitz does not want to rule out that this could have lowered his market value: "I guess I wasn't clever enough." Playing about gangs to stay in touch was never his thing.

As a reporter you could break your teeth with him, as a defender too, and as a coach you could despair of him - or count yourself lucky to have him on the team: in his great years in Kiel and in the national jersey, Zeitz was the instinctive handball player in the right backcourt .

If, with his 186 centimeters, he saw the gap or sensed that the competitors were unsorted or not focused: Kawumm!

"The fans celebrated me"

He threw with his left, he threw hard, he threw placed, or he ducked under cover, slipped through the defense and slammed the ball in.

"My coaches knew that I sometimes moved outside the system," he says.

Few players in German handball delivered a more entertaining style of play than this silent man with the blatant arm pull.

13 years in Kiel in two episodes, in between Veszprem, at the end Nußloch, Stuttgart, Minden, where he played against relegation and ended his career with muscles at the age of 41.

Not everything went according to plan.

In Kiel, his likeness hung as a "legend" in the ancestral gallery under the ceiling of the hall, but was taken down by the club after a contract dispute in 2018.

Zeitz says: "I think that's a shame.

But can't change it anymore.

The fans celebrated me when I was in Kiel with Minden.”

That's how he sees it.

He is not to be had for melancholy.

The best memories of 2007 remain - all three titles with the THW, plus world champion with the DHB.

"I can't limit my career to one year," he says, "but this year was extraordinary." Zeitz lives with his family in Heidelberg.

He has his coaching license and is studying sports management with a focus on law and marketing.

Coach or sports director, that's where it should go: "I don't want to start too low.

It should be in the first or second league.”

He seems proud to have extended his active career for so long, thanks to healthy nutrition in the final arc, thanks to the weights, luck was also part of it.

He says: “Handball always delivers new types.

There are already a few coming.” Is that true?

In Flensburg, Zeitz was public enemy number one after he shot down goalkeeping legend Jan Holpert in the scandalous 2007 Champions League final.

No glorious deed.

Zeitz says: "When I played with Minden in Flensburg, the fans brought me home-baked cakes after the game."

When even the old friend-enemy schemes are no longer correct, it was really time for Christian Zeitz to stop.