The most terrible day in footballer Fabian Klos’ career so far was October 4, 2013. At that time, in Arminia Bielefeld’s second division game against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, Klos collided with opponent Mo Idrissou in a header duel and suffered so many fractures in his facial skull, forehead and eye sockets that it was only days later, after a massive swelling had subsided, that he received 13 metal plates and 26 Screws could be inserted in the face. After two months, Fabian Klos was able to play cautiously again with a carbon mask. Plates and screws were eventually removed, but it was months before he lost his fear of aerial duels.
Something similar happened to Fabian Klos on Saturday. Like a nightmare coming back. In injury time of the basement duel against VfB Stuttgart, he collided with his teammate Alessandro Schöpf in a header duel. Schöpf’s skull crashed into Klos’ face. As his teammates bent over the fallen toilets, they immediately waved their arms excitedly, signaling that something bad had happened. Shortly after the game, coach Frank Kramer reported massive swelling on Klos’ face.
The club failed to publish a precise diagnosis on Sunday. She would have gone into too much detail, both surgically and personally. As in 2013, a lot broke. At that time, eight and a half years ago, Klos was 25 years old and in the prime of his career. Today Klos is 34 years old. He is playing his eleventh and final season for Arminia Bielefeld. The farewell had already been announced, but Klos was determined not to end his career just yet.
After the bad accident, two questions arise, apart from the hopefully quick recovery: Will Fabian Klos ever play for Bielefeld again? That’s unlikely. And does the injury mean that he might have to end his career after all? Possible. However, you don’t really want to complete a career that way. Klos would have imagined his departure from Bielefeld in such a way that he would manage to stay up again with Arminia.
Bielefeld took a small step against Stuttgart
After all: On the way there, Bielefeld achieved a small success on Saturday. Florian Krüger (59th) equalized Stuttgart’s lead with a penalty from Sasa Kalajdzic (25th) to a very flattering 1-1 final score for Arminia. As a result, everything stays close together in the table cellar. Despite numerous high-quality chances, the Stuttgarters failed to win the game and thus pull away a bit.
The game also developed into a special game for VfB center forward Kalajdzic. The week before last he had lost the World Cup playoff game with Austria in Wales and was elbowed in the face in that game, from which two big bruises under his eyes are still evidence. But nothing broke, so he was able to play in Bielefeld and convert the penalty to a 1-0 lead.
Kalajdzic grabs the stretcher – because he’s not going fast enough
The 24-year-old became a little hero for the Bielefeld audience in added time when Klos was on the ground and two paramedics approached so slowly with the stretcher despite a clear request from Stuttgart’s supervisor that Kalajdzic sprinted towards them, took the stretcher off and ran to the scene of the accident with it . The whole stadium applauded. It was a touching scene.
Stuttgart’s Sasa Kalajdzic gets a stretcher from a paramedic to carry onto the pitch for Bielefeld’s Fabian Klos.
(Photo: Friso Gentsch/dpa)
Bielefeld’s coach Kramer called Kalajdzic’s action “outstanding”: “In this scene, Sasa was concerned with nothing other than Fabian, who actually plays in the opposing team.” Kramer generally praised the empathy of football professionals. “One often forgets that despite all the rivalry, they have a good relationship,” he said, “these things are very important these days, these small signs; to tackle them, even if it’s not about your own jacket.” And so ended a grueling basement duel that no one had won, at least with a sign of unity.