Tobias Hauke chooses hockey over Bundesliga

After Germany wrapped up one of their training sessions on a hot afternoon here, Tobias Hauke picked up a football lying around, gave it a mighty strike and sent it to the other end of the practice pitch.

Perhaps, he misses it.

The 31-year-old Hauke, a three-time Olympic medallist with the German national hockey team, was also the manager of one of the country's top football club, HSV (Hamburger SV), a Hamburg-based club which plays in the Bundesliga.

The hockey star — who was an integral part of the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics medal-winning Germany team — was associated with HSV for six years, first as a press officer for four years and then as team manager for the next couple.

Earlier this year, however, the club put him in a spot, asking him to take a pick between the ball and the stick, purely because his love for hockey was taking him far too away from his football commitments.

Tore between his passion and duty, Hauke just couldn't put a full stop to hockey at this stage, prompting HSV to part ways with him as manager.

"I chose the road of hockey," Hauke tells DNA.

"I worked hard to get into the national hockey team, worked hard to play and stay in there for 12 years.

"I know I can't do it for 10 more years. In one or two or three or four years, it'll be all over. This will be there only for a few more moments, and I want to live each of those moments. Right here," he says, pointing at the hockey turf on which he was standing.

Breaking into the senior national hockey team in 2005, Hauke was simultaneously pursuing his BA in the University of Hamburg from 2008 when he got an internship offer from HSV six years ago.

"I started my internship with the media management team of the club, and after that, they asked me to stay back," he says.

Two years ago, he was promoted to a managerial role in the club, and that's when the juggling act started to get a bit complicated.

After finishing his hockey training in the morning, Hauke would head straight to work at the club, where it would often get as late as 7pm. Only after another hockey session would he find the luxury of chilling in his living room.

"My wife didn't see me a lot in those two years," he says with a smile.

"I train for hockey twice a day, and the (football) club also had a professional day where they train all day. It was two years of my life where I had to be really disciplined," he says.

He recollects days when immediately after playing a hockey game, he would fly straight to be at HSV's football game in the evening.

"Football games in Germany are usually at the weekend. For one-and-a-half years, I sometimes flew after my hockey game straight to the football game.

"I really love my sport as well as my job. And if you love both and you do it with passion, then you can organise it well.

"But of course, it was not easy," he says.

The difficulty was felt by the HSV management too, and they realised time had come to seek full-time commitment from its manager.

Hauke, though, wasn't yet ready to bid adieu to hockey, hoping to represent his country at least till the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

"I started with this team 12 years ago, and saw it being built it brick by brick with a process in mind. And I want to be with this team till the end of the process, not leave it suddenly," he says.

KNOW HAUKE

Full name: Tobias Constantin Hauke

Born: September 11, 1987; Hamburg

International debut: 2005

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Was part of the Germany team that won gold at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, as well as bronze in the 2016 edition
   
• Was part of the national team that won silver in the 2010 World Cup
   
• Also has two Indoor World Cup medals to his name (gold in 2007 and silver in 2018)