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Tabaković: "You have to invest everything in your dream"
Haris Tabaković's career has taken a special path. As a top talent, he completed an apprenticeship at a bank at the same time as playing football. "That was more important to my family at the time," explains the striker. "I was at work in my suit at eight in the morning, always one of the first to arrive, as I had to leave by four in the afternoon at the latest. Then I'd run home, take my suit off, pack my mum's sandwich, get on the train to Bern, train and get home again at around ten pm." He could have taken the safe route, which would have made his parents "even happier at the time". But he decided to place his bets on football: "You have to get out of your comfort zone and invest everything in your dream."
He was born in a culture of hard work and discipline. His parents had to make a difficult decision prior to his birth. His parents fled war in the Balkans and moved to Switzerland when Haris's mother was pregnant with him. "To go to a country where you don't speak the language, to give up everything at the age of 30 with a toddler and an unborn child, even though you had studied and had your own company. To then make ends meet doing gardening and the like, so that you can give your children a new life, it's beyond words. I am infinitely grateful for that," he says.
The Tabaković family integrated in Switzerland and could easily be held up as a prime example of successful integration. "It's important to understand what makes the Swiss tick - in my case - and what their interests are. If you're not interested in that, if you don't integrate and instead think: ‘I'm a foreigner, Bosnian, Turk or whatever’, it doesn't work," says the 30-year-old, adding: "Everyone is welcome to be whoever they want, but they have to integrate into the new country, the system and society. I've always internalised that and this attitude has helped me a lot."
Haris Tabaković's footballing career did not follow a straight path, and at one crossroads he even considered going back to banking. At the age of 26, the striker was without a club, with only one enquiry from Austrian second-tier outfit Austria Lustenau on the table. "But it was a crucial point: either I turn things around or I go back to working life in Switzerland. In the end, it was the most important stage in my life. I regained confidence in my body, I played and enjoyed football again. I also met my wife during this time." Tabaković became top scorer at the club, moved to Austria Vienna, then onto Hertha BSC, became top scorer there too and then fulfilled his dream of playing in the Bundesliga with TSG Hoffenheim.
Also in the current issue of SPIELFELD, the official club magazine of TSG Hoffenheim: DFB managing director Andreas Rettig honours Dietmar Hopp on the occasion of his 85th birthday, Tom Bischof looks back on his time at TSG before his move Bayern Munich, and the U23s' route to the 3. Liga is explained. We also paid a visit to TSG fan Klaus Schröder's asparagus and berry farm in Reilingen and accompanied the U19 assistant coaches in a day at work. All this and much more in the 108-page issue.
