"When I look in the mirror I am 35".

Soccer writes the most beautiful stories. That sounds like a pathetic saying from your great-uncle's soccer calendar. However, the story of Georg Hartmann shows exactly that.

How the attitude to life of a soccer player from the A-Class 4 Inn/Salzach can also serve as inspiration for a Champions League winner. 

How soccer manages to act as a symbol and at the same time as a catalyst for lasting satisfaction. 

And what potential an app has to make the difference on the pitch in the end.  

Tuesday evening, 7 p.m., Marktl am Inn sports field: 

25 men run, straddle, play short passes, jump over hurdles and do their laps along the lime lines of TSV's playing field. 

It smells like a sports field - like grass and men's sweat. Corona is still the topic, but you can feel the joy, the hunger for soccer. A little piece of habit and routine coming back. You can see the team's enthusiasm to be back on the pitch together after months of being banned from playing.  

In the midst of this army of twenty-something soccer players, one stands out. Not because he moves differently, acts differently, plays a completely different ball. He plays at eye level.  

But when you get down to that eye level, look him in the face, you read energy, enthusiasm, satisfaction in the here and now. But you also see, and may he forgive the author, that he has a few more years under his belt. Georg Hartmann, known as Schorsch Sport, is over 60 years old, born in 1960.

Schorsch Sport is not on the pitch with these 20- to 30-year-olds because he had a falling out with the old men's team or because they wanted to please him.

Schorsch Sport is an essential part of this team - at eye level. And when you watch him straddle the ball, read his game, see how he wins duel after duel, you know why that is. 

Anyone who tries to recognize signs of age-related wear and tear after an hour of training will be proven wrong. 

Schorsch Sport tackles, passes, crosses, shoots. 

Schorsch Sport is one of them.

If you ask him about his secret to success, three factors stand out.

Tip 1: Positive life energy

First of all, there is this positive energy for life. Schorsch Sport sees every day as a gift, but also as an obligation to make the best of it. 

You notice in conversation that he has an unusual view of things - but an unusually positive, life-affirming, energetic one. Example:

"Tens of new cells are created in the body every day. And I decide how my body is set up." That's it: a decision - every single day.  

Tip 2: healthy nutrition

For Schorsch Sport, this decision is also called: healthy eating, which would be the name of his second success story.

In the morning only fruits and orange juice, at noon carbohydrates and occasionally meat, in the evening exclusively salad and vegetables. 

Nutritionists may argue about whether this is ideal. For Sport Schorsch it is ideal - and you can see it. 

Tip 3: Sport, sport, sport

And of course it is sport, daily training, regular exercise that plays a major role in physical fitness - and daily meditation for inner balance.

Schorsch Sport is a big fan of CrossFit. The sport keeps him young, strengthens his muscles.

But his body also has its pitfalls - pitfalls that some others start to feel at the age of 30. It's the hip flexor. 

"The problem with me was that I only ever did what I enjoyed. And in soccer it was always the case that the hip flexor was shortened and I often had massive pain after the load."

And then came Corona. State of emergency. Lock-down, mouth and nose protection, no contact.

For Schorsch Sport - and this is one of the punchlines of this story - it was a positive turning point in sporting terms: 

Maximilian Kaltenhauser; the co-trainer of TSV Marktl, sends a message to the team and draws attention to B42, a soccer - fitness app. From now on, Sport Schorsch can also train at home. He starts the GAMECHANGER:

three months of displicine for more strength and mobility.

When he returns to the pitch in July, his ailments have disappeared.

"I was able to train for an hour and a half straight, and the pain was permanently gone. It's a great feeling of happiness. And I can make fast movements in the meantime that were not possible before. Because the body now allows it. My statics have improved, the groin problems are gone. I'm sure of it: this must be the app." 

Schorsch Sport is more stable, robust and agile - qualities that help him in every duel.

Or as he puts it, "He flew two meters - and I stood."

If you ask his coach about the importance of Schorsch Sport for the team, everything that makes this footballer and person stand out becomes clear. 

Alexander Wimmer stands on the sidelines of Marktl's sports field and speaks highly of his most experienced player:

"Physically, he is an absolute phenomenon. That is impressive. But he is also important for us as a motivator. He has this mental strength, he pulls his teammates along. You can only win with Georg."

You can leave it at that.

The story of Schorsch Sport is not only an object lesson about the power that a positive attitude to life develops, what is possible with will and discipline.

It also shows the integrative power of soccer. 

"When I'm in training, I'm one of them. Then I'm like 20 or 30, then there's no difference." 

You listen to him, feel his energy, see the gleam in his eyes and realize once again: soccer is more than just a sport.