Bei Ferencváros Leistungsträger
©IMAGO
On the side of Kai Havertz and Maduka Okoye, Cebrail Makreckis secured the German championship in the 2015/2016 season with the B-youth of Bayer 04 Leverkusen. While Havertz started directly in men’s football, Makreckis had to take some detours. He is now one of the regular players at Ferencváros Budapest and is observed by first division teams from the top European leagues. Transfer market spoke to the 24 -year -old right -back about a moving career.
Sometimes you need a review to develop new motivation and strength for the next challenge. At such moments, Cebrail Makreckis is happy to think back to the 2019/20 season when he struggled with Bonner SC in the Regionalliga West to remove the league. The full -back then dreamed of jumping to the professionals, but the sporting presence looked different, his team fought for relegation. “Of course, the time in Bonn was very formative, but also very hard for me. Hard when you see that former teammates from the Leverkusen youth ended up directly in professional football and you have to take a detour,” says the defender in the TM interview. “Although the conditions in Bonn were anything but easy, I always believed that I would make it into professional football. During this time I had to listen to a lot of sayings. ‘Cebrail, stop dreaming.
“There are many players who let themselves down from such sayings, I took them as a motivation. Quasi with the attitude: I show you it and at some point I laugh at you. My attitude was always: If I believe deep in the heart, I don’t let anyone take away this dream of nobody,” emphasizes Makreckis, whose performance in Bonn a short time later called the second representation of Borussia Dortmund. At that time, the 24-year-old was convinced that the change to a success story would become, but again reality looked different. While BVB fought for promotion to the third division, the full -back was out.
“When I signed at the BVB at the time, I was of course convinced that it was the right way. In retrospect, it was going badly, but I was able to learn a lot. Here, too, I kept my positive attitude. I said to myself if life has this task for me, then I accept this task, work on me and continue to fight,” says the 24-year-old.
After a more mixed first half of the BVB II in the 3rd league, he switched to league competitor Viktoria Berlin, which, however, relegated to fourth class. The former Latvian U19 international stood on the crossroads of his career and was not too good to go a stony path. He led him to the Bulgarian first division club Pirin Blagoevgrad, the home club of the former Bundesliga star Dimitar Berbatov. “When I got the offer from Bulgaria at the time, I said to my advisor: Bulgaria, really your seriously? But after that I realized if I really want to progress. I didn’t want to go far away. I didn’t want to go to Austria or Switzerland either. I wanted a complete new beginning in a country where nobody knew me and in which I could simply start from zero.”
Makreckis about Bulgaria: “Thought I arrived in 1990”
Although it was the first Bulgarian league, the sporting infrastructure was hardly comparable to Germany, the native of Aachen recalls. “If you know all the privileges from Germany, of course you react shocked. When I saw the cabin for the first time, I thought to myself, I arrived in 1990. But I said to myself that the shower has warm water, I have my own closet, what more. In such moments you become humble,” says Makreckis, who lived in Blagoevgrad very minimalistically.
“I had a small one -room apartment in which there was not much besides a bed and a sofa. I had a kitchenette, I also felt just fed up with noodles, rice and bread. I had the beautiful nature in front of the door, I felt hiking every other day. I got to know an incredible number of warm people in Bulgaria. If you are in the untouched nature, you don’t need to see much in life. Life has changed extremely there, ”emphasizes the full -back. In terms of sport, his club was only about relegation, the flexible Makreckis was one of the top performers and held six positions during the season. His achievements brought him into the focus of the Hungarian traditional club Ferencváros Budapest.
“I thought at the beginning: ‘Even if I play outstandingly here, who should see me here?’ Sometimes I only played 50, 60, 70. good clubs can come, ”said the 24-year-old.
From the beginning, he developed into an indispensable leader in the team of the Hungarian record champion. His achievements contributed to Ferencváros again becoming national champion last year. “I only had this one chance, so I had to deliver from the first match day. Every training session, every league paper had to sit. I like to compare it to an acrobat on a high rope. If you start thinking about whether you fail, you fail. That’s why I only thought positively,” said Makreckis.
Makreckis: “Today my body is my biggest weapon”
The sturdy defender’s player is also characterized by the physique and a corresponding physical presence on the pitch. “My body used to be my biggest weakness. I was always the smallest, always the thinnest. Today my body is my biggest weapon. In Bulgaria I started doing more to push additional shifts. In Budapest I now hear from my athletic coach: ‘Cebo, today you don’t need to do anything in the gym.’ But I still do it because I have fun.
Two coaches who shaped him at Ferencváros played at their active time where Makreckis still allowed – in top European football. “I was and were lucky that I was able to train or are allowed to train both under Dejan Stankovic as now as well as Robbie Keane. Dejan was very impulsive, very emotionally, very passionate, but also a very funny guy. He took the time very often after training, and we have struck or trained flanks. can. Robbie expects a ball of Larifari.
“My most beautiful moment was the game against AC Florence in the Conference League. Yesterday you still played in Bulgaria and suddenly you play against Nico González, who is Argentinian international. It was so surreal. A lot is still surreal for me. That I now appear in Panini stickers, or that I can only play friends with me in FIFA. For these moments. “
While Makreckis is largely unknown in Germany, he enjoys a higher level of awareness abroad. 100,000 followers follow him on Instagram alone. “I actually didn’t notice this hype about me. That may also be because I was used to my time in Bulgaria that nobody sees me or knows me. I got to know the Ferencváros fans as very crazy. Then so speechless that I don’t know what to say about it. “
In the meantime, the native of Aachen has not only moved into the focus of the Latvian A-national team. “Through my mother I could play for Latvia, through my father for Turkey. There is an exchange with both associations. But I am currently tending to wear the Turkish national team’s jersey in the future.”
Makreckis said about his future at club level: “I actually have no dreamland or dream club for which I want to appear. Rather, I would like to measure myself with the best in the world. Whether I will in the end to Italy, Spain, Germany or England will be seen. In any case, I will stay humble, because I know where I played a few years ago. loud profit of the league and the cup. “
Text and interview: Henrik Stadnischenko
