SG Sonnenhof: A clear edge on and off the field

When the 1.93-meter-high defender battled for points with the Fautenhau for the first time in July 2013, the Swabians had a long trip to Hesse on the agenda. The team coached by Rudiger Rumm at the time won the regional league match in Bonatal 1-0 and advanced to the third division ten months later. Eight and a half years later, the SG coach’s name is Hans-Jürgen Boysen and Gehring is fighting with Aspach at Gießen in Hesse against relegation from the regional league.

“Back then, the core of the team was together for a long time, he had the same coach for a long time and he got along really well,” says the defensive veteran, reviewing his time and the club’s most successful times at the same time. In addition to the 2013/2014 promotions season, this includes six rounds of Third Class for the Defender. Explains Kai Gehring, who has already said this several times and is happy to add: “This achievement is sometimes not appreciated enough.”

For the defender, the reason why the third-division football league in Futtenhau ended in May 2020 has a lot to do with the fact that “the core has been gradually emptied”. Good players always left, experienced players disappeared and “the many changes took a lot of getting used to”. While the often high quality of financially strong competition has long been balanced with more team spirit and as a team on the pitch, this has become a smaller plus from season to season. At some point, going to the regional league could no longer be prevented.

The fact that SG struggles there in the sophomore year is another matter for the veteran: “It’s definitely not what we imagined – both rounds.” He also sees that the sporting problems of last season have begun and he is getting used to it. This applies, for example, to the motivating factor. Gehring, meanwhile, explains, “It makes a difference whether you’re playing on artificial turf in Schott Mainz when the temperature is 26 degrees or in front of 15,000 spectators at the Ostseestadion in Rostock.” But the veteran also says: “The first year I bore problems, for the second year that no longer applies.” Even if he knows that “football is certainly also played in the regional league”.

However, the third-placed man to appear with Saint-Germain after Martin Simander (373 competitive games) and Shekiprem Benacaj (364) expect the player to finish sixth in the standings in the remaining nine games of the season will make it clear that he will stay. in the league. “The team needs to provoke again, everyone has to fight for each other and we have to approach the tasks with confidence,” he recommends, being sure: “We are in a very good position in terms of personnel.” It was attacking man Stephen Lorenz who had his contract terminated for professional reasons at the beginning of the week (we reported), as did injured striker Dominic Salz, but “our squad is wide enough”.

A judgment he also makes because he “added quality” in the winter. This applies to top scorer Sasha Mulders as well as midfield organizer Manuel Conrad and defender Lamar Yarbro, who, like Gering and Lucas Muller, takes up one of these two positions in the defense headquarters. No problem for the old mare, after all “it’s always good when you have competition”. A sentence about self-confidence and “I’m still fit at 34”. So does that mean he’s extending his contract, which is set to expire at the end of the season, thus entering his 10th year at Asbacher? “I haven’t thought much about it and there haven’t been any discussions yet,” Gehring says, adding, “But if it were up to me, it wouldn’t have to have the village club story over for me after this season” especially when Großaspach diligently confirms direction bullish for the recent past in the coming weeks.

informations

youths Kai Gehring started with football as Steppke at ASV Eislingen. From there he moved to the youth team of VFB Stuttgart and then to SSV Ulm, who played for his native Göppingen U19 in the German Bundesliga before moving to 1. FC Nuremberg in his second year as a youth. There, too, he was the center back on the ball in the Youth First Division.

Energetic At the club, he first played for the U23s at Oberliga Bayern and after promotion at Regionalliga Süd. One of his comrades-in-arms with Franconia’s second team at the time was today’s VfB coach Pellegrino Matarazzo. After two years at 1. FC Nürnberg II, Kai Gehring moved to third tier club SV Wehen Wiesbaden in the summer of 2009. A year and a half later, in January 2011, he moved to 1. FC Saarbrücken in the third tier. Swabian was also under contract with the Saarlanders for a year and a half before it expired in the summer of 2012. After that, the defender was without a club for a year and during these twelve months kept fit with lower tier clubs, among other things.

Grossbach In July 2013, Gehring signed with then-regional league club SG Sonnenhof and has since been part of the nearly Fautenhau facility. In his first year with Asbash, under coach Rudiger Rumm, he was promoted to the Third Division in May 2014, and six years later he was relegated to the Regional Division. He now has 303 competitive games for SG Sonnenhof.

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