Frei’s Tale of Broken Dreams

June 9th, 2008 | by: Jan |

In front of the press Alexander Frei could barely withhold a flow of tears:
“My dream has been crushed. I have to admit that I’ve cried a lot for the past two days”.
“I’m not far from believing that my first 43 minutes on Saturday were my best with the Nati”.

The 28-year old striker left the pitch in tears following a challenge with Czech defender Grygera that brought his homeland tournament dream to an end.

“I can’t blame Grygera. It’s been mere chance. But in this misfortune I can say I’ve been lucky. I could have been on the sidelines for 6 months had it affected me by a few millimetres. You fall down in life, and then you can choose to stay lying on the ground or to stand up again. People say champions always stand up. Well, I’ll do everything to stand up to this.”

Despite being unable to help his team he reminded everyone that Switzerland isn’t defeated yet: “My dream has been crushed but the team’s dream goes on. I already told the players before the game that our whole nation has one team now, and that we keep going whatever happens.”

Alex also thanked the players, the Swiss Football Association and Borussia Dortmund for their help and understanding and he also believes that Switzerland can qualify from group A:
“Despite the physical issues we had against the Czechs, we’ve played the game the way we should have.”
Concerning Turkey Frei believes that the Istanbul game has to be forgotten (the World Cup playoff where Switzerland kicked out Turkey). Wednesday’s game will have nothing to do with that one. I have no advices to give to my team. I’m not Kobi. I just want to be here with them, to be sure the dream goes on. But I have a good feeling about it: we’ll defeat the Turks!”

Even in personal defeat, Frei is a great man and a great player. His Tale of Broken Dreams needs a happy ending.