Pierre De Wit: The curse of the knee

If you look at his medical records and list of injuries then it’s incredible that he was able to keep going for so long. He had to undergo a total of eight knee operations, including three torn cruciates, before he drew a line under his career in 2016. Pierre de Wit made his last appearance as a professional football player in August 2015 with MSV Duisburg when he was only 27. He finished playing at an age where others are in their prime. ‘Piero’ was a pro for nine years but for nearly three and a half years he was sidelined and a permanent rehab patient. To be more exact, 1,236 days – that figure is the sum total of all his time on the sidelines.

“There were a lot of people who predicted I’d end my career much earlier. But I’ve always been a battler and I never thought about giving up,” he said. However, the never-ending injuries did wear him down and all the stresses and strains, pain and new starts were no longer manageable. That was finally clear after he went through two groin operations in quick succession and it became obvious to the the never-say-die De Wit that his body was not built to go through the mill of professional football. “In the end, I just realised I wasn’t able reach the level I expected of myself. It was a gradual process but, at some point, I recognised I wasn’t able to carry on.”

When Pierre De Wit 1999 joined Leverkusen as a 12-year-old from his Cologne-based club SC Weiler-Volkhoven the small but lively midfielder quickly won over his coaches as a dynamic number ten and dead ball specialist. In 2006 he was also a focus of attention for the Werkself thanks to the coach Michael Skibbe. He trained with the first team during the week and then played for the second team in the Regional League West. “Pierre is a highly talented lad and is doing a brilliant job. He’s cheeky and easy going and, at the same time, very clinical with his moves,” said Skibbe in praising the youngster back then.

The world was De Wit’s oyster back then and he made four brief appearances in the Bundesliga and came on as a substitute in the UEFA Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur at the BayArena in 2006. As he was not as successful as his best mate from the same year group at the time, Gonzalo Castro, he went out on loan to second division VfL Osnabrück in 2007. Their coach, ‘Pele’ Wollitz, played him as a number six and it was a role that suited De Wit who was keen to learn, “because you can affect the game in a completely different way in that position.” Fate quickly caught him out and the first torn cruciate on matchday two in August 2007 started the list of serious injuries. De Wit made his next appearance for the Purple and Whites in March of the following year.

Best years at Kaiserslautern

He was the driving force at VfL in the following season, playing in 33 out of 34 games. In his last match on 24 May 2009, he suffered a second torn cruciate that sidelined him for months. De Wit’s loan ended and he completed his rehab at Leverkusen before moving on to second division FC Kaiserslautern in January 2010. He suffered a third cruciate injury in the away game at Alemannia Aachen that meant he was unable to contribute much to the title race and a possible return to the Bundesliga. Giving up was not an option, and if De Wit was in danger of being too downhearted, his two-year-old daughter Amelie quickly rescued him from negative thoughts. He went on to make 38 appearances for the Red Devils in Germany’s top flight, scoring three goals and enjoying his most successful period as a professional player. “Those were my best years as a player,” he said. In 2013 – after another knee operation – came the move to MSV Duisburg in the third division where he made 48 appearances.

When the final curtain came down for Pierre De Wit at the Zebras, Bayer 04 were in the frame again straightaway. “It’s my club, this is where my heart is, Leverkusen is my world. The contact was always there with Jörg Bittner who I saw as my main backer. I’ll never forget how the Bayer 04 general manager at the time, Michael Reschke, called me up after a torn cruciate during my time at Lautern and said: ‘Don’t let the injuries get you down but one thing is clear: If you ever think of giving up playing then just come back home.’ I’m not somebody easily moved to tears but I was so emotional that I almost started crying.”

During his recovery in Duisburg, De Wit recalled Reschke’s words, even though he was technical director at Bayern Munich at the time. Pierre spent a few weeks at the Academy in Kurtekotten before joining the coaching staff in the youth section in 2016. He started with the U13s and stayed with them up to the U15 level. “That’s the core of the current U17s, the players born in 2003 were my lads,” he said. The new coach was able to learn a lot from Slawomir Czarniecki, Mirko Casper, who followed a similar path from player to youth coach, and Florian Junge. ‘Piero’ is currently looking after the Bayer 04 U12s along with Maximilian Straub, but he is interested in the long term of gaining experience with the U17 to U19 squads, “because the football at that level has a greater complexity.”

He came to terms with ending his playing career long ago even though he may occasionally have had the thought of what might have been without the curse of the knee. “There were one or two moments where more might have been possible. After my first season at Osnabrück, I was invited to a course with the U21 national team with two internationals against Ukraine and Denmark where it was about selecting the extended squad for the European Championship in the following year. Then, at the first training session, it came out that I’d suffered a torn MCL in my last game for VfL,” he said. That was the end of a possible springboard for De Wit – while lads like Manuel Neuer, Jerome Boateng, Sami Khedira, Mesut Özil, Mats Hummels and Benedikt Höwedes won the U21 European Championship in 2009 and crowned that by winning the World Cup in 2014.

Proud father and bodytuning

De Wit returned to living in the north of Cologne a long time ago. The house in Heimersdorf is a hive of activity since Pierre and his wife Sevgi were parents for the second time six months ago, “and our little princess Zoey was born,” as the proud father explained. In addition to his role as a coach, the former player also completed a course in sports management at the IST University in Düsseldorf, and he has a share in the ‘Bodytuning’ along with his former Bayer 04 teammates Abdullah Keseroglu and Julian Schauerte that primarily focuses on personal training, muscle building and diet regimes. At the end of the day, who else could know more about getting into shape than Pierre de Wit with his long and painful experience...