Christian Jungwirth was once a talented goalkeeper at VfB Stuttgart under Thomas Tuchel, now he is one of Germany’s highest-profile MMA fighters – and is celebrating a big homecoming in Stuttgart this weekend.
Christian Jungwirth once dreamed of a great career as a professional footballer. And came closer than many others.
He played as a youth goalkeeper at VfB Stuttgart, among his teammates: Andreas Beck and Serdar Tasci, later German champion with VfB and national player under Joachim Löw. Their coach back then? A certain Thomas Tuchel.
For Jungwirth, the dream of the big soccer stage has long since been shattered, but not the dream of the big sports stage: on Saturday, Jungwirth will be in the spotlight in front of around 13,000 fans in Stuttgart’s Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle – as an MMA fighter at the OKTAGON 55 event.
Christian Jungwirth: From VfB Stuttgart to MMA idol
Welterweight Jungwirth meets his Slovakian rival Robert Pukac for the second time on Saturday and is the promotional figurehead of the fight night, with which the Czech-based Oktagon MMA league underpins its status as the European counterpart to the billion-dollar UFC.
“My story is simply a real-life rocky story,” said tattoo enthusiast Jungwirth – fight name: “The Kelt” – in a recent interview with n-tv: “My story sets me apart from the other fighters. “
The 37-year-old comes from the small town of Bopfingen in Baden-Württemberg, close to the border with Bavaria. As a youth footballer in nearby Nördlingen, he attracted the attention of VfB, where he played under the young Tuchel, among others, a few years before his breakthrough as a Bundesliga coach.
“I had no problems with him because he saw that I was a workhorse and gave everything for the team,” recalls Jungwirth.
Life crisis after retiring as a footballer
In the end, Jungwirth – repeatedly set back by injuries – did not make the leap to the pros, resulting in a lengthy life crisis.
“After that, I messed up my training. I was depressed afterwards and started partying. I drifted through life without a plan,” he told Bild two years ago.
Jungwirth remained involved in soccer as part of the VfB ultras scene, drifting into hooliganism. Ultimately, however, he decided to channel his fascination with fighting into something more organized – first as a boxer, then in the burgeoning MMA scene.
Established as an attraction
Jungwirth was already 30 years old when he committed himself to mixed martial arts. However, the commitment turned out to be a stroke of luck for both sides: Jungwirth established himself as such a national and international attraction that he has since been able to give up his previous job as a forklift driver.
The family man made a name for himself on the scene with spectacular fights, and a scene from a fight against the Serbian Bojan Velickovic last summer, in which Jungwirth managed an impossible move, has almost achieved legendary status: he fought his way through his opponent’s dreaded rear-naked choke for 40 seconds – and then simply shook him off
