A German exchange student writes a Cinderella story with his decisive points in a football game in the USA.
He would probably never have imagined this story! A German exchange student has become a celebrated football hero at a US high school. And that despite the fact that he had no experience as a career changer.
Laurenz Plattner, a teenager from Munich, is currently a student at high school in Stratford, Wisconsin. The local football team, the Stratford Tigers, faced the Darlington Redbirds in the final of the WIAA (Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, Division 6) major school sports tournament.
Until shortly before the end it was 7:7 in a grueling game, before the first field goal attempt of the German’s high school career brought victory with 23 seconds left. But nothing came of it. The kick was blocked, the opponent regained possession of the ball, but cannot use this to win.
The Tigers were given the right to attack again with six seconds left. The clock ran out, but Stratford was lucky: because the opponent received a holding penalty, the ball went to the 15-yard line. An unexpected second chance for the German teenager, which he knew how to take advantage of!
The kick was there, his team celebrated a 10:7 victory and thus the national title for the second time in a row. And that despite the fact that Plattner had never before converted a field goal under competitive conditions.
“I obviously wanted another chance to prove I could do it. After I kicked the first one, I felt a little depressed and sad. If we had lost that game, I would be the idiot. The idiot who didn’t have a field goal,” explained Plattner, whose Cinderella story even made it onto various US news programs.
The “hero for Stratford,” as interviewing TV reporter Karley Marotta described him, even caused a stir among former German NFL professional Dominik Eberle. “Congratulations Laurenz! Keep it up,” he wrote on X.
The young German, whose jersey didn’t even have his name on it, won’t soon forget this day.
2023-11-19 17:02:01
#German #teenager #football #hero #USA
