Once a celebrated star, today one of the biggest critics of his sport: Neven Subotic has long preferred to take care of what really matters to him away from the football field. That’s about clean drinking water in Africa. He has finished football and is even “puked up”.
Former Bundesliga professional Neven Subotic has lost interest in football: “I don’t watch a whole game, only highlights, I just want to see goals,” said the 33-year-old, who won the German championship with Borussia Dortmund in 2011 and 2012 , in an interview with the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. “I’m not interested in football per se, but I’m happy for my former colleagues,” added the former Serbia international. “Some I see as my little brothers. I hope to have given them a little something in terms of decision-making and how they go through a career.”
Subotic can no longer do anything with the principle of competitive sport: “I’m so pissed off because a lot of it is so irrelevant.” He knows that sport can drive people crazy, experience that with his father. “He just watches or plays sport. When I call him, he watches tennis or the second division of Italy,” said Subotic. But he encounters a problem. His father was always proud of the Yugoslav athletes, “and then his son also made it onto the big stage. But when I see how much has been lost as a result, I don’t even dare to look into it any further. “
Much more important to Subotic is his foundation, with which he provides clean drinking water in Africa. “Women and children are out and about for up to six hours a day hauling dirty water. You can imagine what happens when you drink contaminated water every day,” said the former defender. Children would have to fetch water instead of being able to go to school. Subotic: “Education becomes a luxury and water becomes a duty.”
He spends 400,000 euros a year on his own projects. Even if his money is used up at some point, he doesn’t regret “a single cent. On the contrary: I couldn’t have invested it better.” Luxury is not important to him, he doesn’t own a lot.
Subotic, who last played for SCR Altach in Austria in 2021, has not officially ended his career. But that was just a formality: “I just haven’t had time to make it official yet,” he told the newspaper.
