I played with Thomas Tuchel before becoming a football ultra… now I’m an MMA star fighting at Bundesliga stadium
CHRISTIAN JUNGWIRTH was once a promising goalkeeper destined for Bundesliga stadiums – now he is an MMA star fighting inside one.
Jungwirth played for Stuttgart’s youth during his early teens alongside the likes of future Champions League-winning Chelsea manager Tuchel.
The former Bayern Munich boss has built a reputation for demanding a lot from his players – but Jungwirth did not mind Tuchel as a team-mate.
He told Bild: “I had no problems with him because he saw that I was a hard worker and gave everything for the team.”
Despite Jungwirth’s talent, his footballing career was cut short at 22 due to ankle and knee injuries – which required SIX surgeries.
Having seen his dreams ripped apart, the former stopper fell into a life of drink, drugs and partying.
He said in a five-part SWR documentary: “I had no goal in life. Sports had always been my goal. At that time, I had other thoughts.
“You couldn’t see it from the outside, but inside I was sad when people said, ‘He’s no good, he can’t do anything, he will never make it.’
“Then you start to echo that in your mind, too.”
Things got so bad that Jungwirth endured a six-month stay in a correctional facility in Munich for a drug-related offence.
CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO WELCOME OFFERS
Jungwirth is now a 15-8 MMA star in Germany, battling it out with countryman Christian Eckerlin in Frankfurt for local bragging rights.
But before he was a paid prizefighter, Jungwirth found his first calling for violence on the football terraces.
He said: “I tend toward extreme things. Football was my life.
“I watched videos on the internet where fans went wild, sang, clapped, set off flares. I always liked that.
“Let’s say no one there was innocent. The guys who met there all wanted a sporting experience.
“Team kickboxing. From lawyers to insurance agents, everyone was there—normal people just searching for excitement.
“Then we would just agree: ten against ten. And that’s how I started fighting.”
By 28, Jungwirth decided to take his passion for scrapping away from the gritty world of football hooliganism.
Instead, he joined a boxing club and just two years later he made his MMA debut at 30-years-old.
“Martial arts ignited a fire in me. Then I realised: ‘This is where you belong’,” he said.
Jungwirth would go onto amass an impressive run of wins and over the last seven years he now stands as one of Germany’s top fighters.
But there is only one man who can rival him in popularity – another former footballer-turned-MMA fighter Eckerlin.
And the two battle it out for the throne at Frankfurt’s 60,000-seat stadium on Saturday at Oktagon 62.
Promoters are confident it will smash the UFC’s attendance record of 56,214, set by Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm in 2015.
And it will finally settle the argument of who is truly the king of German MMA.