Gojko Kacar never lacked for talent, but he suffered from poor health. At 31, the midfielder has ended his career. Now he looks back on his start in Berlin, difficult times in Hamburg and his end in Augsburg.
171 Bundesliga games and 18 goals were scored by Gojko Kacar for Hertha BSC, Hamburger SV and FC Augsburg. The Serbian spent most of his professional career in the Bundesliga, but he has now been “retired” for almost six years. Now he is starting a new career as a youth coach at Vojvodina Novi Sad. In an interview with Mozzart Sport, the 37-year-old looked back on his time in Germany.
Kacar once moved to Berlin at the age of 20, but at the time he didn’t really believe it. “I had heard that Hertha was interested, but I thought it was just a story. But then the transfer was realized and a week later I made my first game for Hertha – without any special preparation, I did not even know my teammates. For me it was all kind of ‘wow’ back then. I prefer to have my rhythm and security. I didn’t like this turbulence, I had a billion thoughts, but in the end I was very happy with how everything turned out.”
In Berlin, he met fellow countryman Marko Pantelic (now 46), who helped him settle in. “We didn’t know each other, but he took me in. There were other guys from the former Yugoslavia,” Kacar said, revealing that it was difficult at the beginning to adapt to the level of the Bundesliga.
“Everything was much faster, you tackle more intensely and you have much less time on the ball. Technically, I was able to keep up, but I first had to get used to the pace. They say that as a footballer you get better when you play with good players – and I was lucky enough to do that and soon felt at home. But to be successful in Germany, you also have to adapt to their work system and rules.”
In his case, that was punctuality. ”When I was young, I was often late. The Germans taught me that this is unacceptable because it is disrespectful to the club and your teammates – and I had to pay a lot of fines because of it. The relationship to work and professionalism is on a higher level in Germany.”
In 2010, Kacar transferred to Hamburger SV – which was initially an absolute dream for the midfielder. ”The transfer was my big wish. A big club, a beautiful city and great players. Every time I played against HSV, I had the desire to play for them one day.” And he fulfilled that wish, but ‘in retrospect, you might think that it was perhaps the wrong decision,’ says Kacar today.
“It wasn’t easy. Hamburg is a club that brought in five or six new players in every transfer phase. They often change coaches and even presidents – and everyone has their vision and wants to start over. It’s so difficult for players to settle in because you never manage to build a foundation, and that affects the results.”
He would have liked to have enjoyed his time in Hamburg more, but that wasn’t possible. “Hamburg had never been relegated before and we had a great responsibility. We didn’t want to be the first HSV team to be relegated. There was a lot of pressure.” The fact is that when Kacar played for HSV, the red shorts always remained in the top division. At that time, however, Kacar also underwent a major mental change, as he now reveals and at the same time regrets. “I no longer played football like a boy on the street, as it once had begun, I saw it more as work.”
New start in Japan
In 2012, his career was already hanging by a thread after a complicated ankle fracture. “I was out of the game for over a year, and it was very difficult to come back after three operations and rehab. It was also very challenging mentally. At the time, there was doubt as to whether I would ever be able to play football again. I needed playing time and competitive practice, but the club had already brought in other players for my position, which was completely understandable. That’s why I went to Japan.”
Kacar played on loan at Cerezo Osaka and found “back to life – mentally, mentally and football. I am proud of this episode in Japan.” After his brief visit to the land of the rising sun, he is still attached to HSV for two more seasons – especially in view of his long injury break, this was important to him. “I wanted to prove that I wasn’t a bad investment. I wanted to show the fans and the people at the club that they hadn’t made a mistake with me, which is why I extended my contract again later on – and these last two seasons went as they should have.”
Convinced by Germany
After his contract with the Northern Lights expired, he was once again faced with the question of a new club. He almost ended up at AEK Athens at the time, as he revealed, but it didn’t work out. “I had 24 hours to decide. I would have had to go to another country where I don’t know anyone or the mentality. I would have had to change everything. I turned it down and a few days later I got the offer from Augsburg. And I wanted to stay in Germany.”
In 2018, however, his time in the Bundesliga came to an end – and a little later, after a five-month interlude in Cyprus with Anarthosis Famagusta, his professional career ultimately came to an end. There were also health reasons why he never returned as a player to his home club Vojvodina. “I knew my body and knew that I might have two or three games at the top level in me, but not 18 or 30.” So now Kacar wants to get started as a youth coach, a job that demands a lot, as the 37-year-old says. ‘You have to be a psychologist, a friend and, with the very young players, somehow a parent too.’
