Arminia Bielefeld captain Mael Corboz has used his own career as an example to say if you work hard, you endure tough times, you can reach your dreams.
The 30-year-old had a difficult start in his footballing career, starting out in the USA but never really made a breakthrough to the professional ranks.
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In 2016, he moved to Germany and played for clubs like MSV Duisburg, Wattenscheid and SC Verl – mainly in the third division while also playing for Dutch club Go Ahead Eagles in the Eerste Divisie in the Netherlands.
He’s been with his current club, Arminia Bielefeld since January 2024 and wants to help the former Bundesliga side to gain promotion to the 2. Bundesliga. This campaign Corboz and his teammates have been writing headlines in the German DFB Pokal after knocking out three Bundesliga sides to set up a semi-final with defending champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
Due to Bielefeld’s history with South African players such as Sibusiso Zuma, Rowen Fernandez, Siyabonga Nkosi, and Delron Buckley, the club arranged an interview with SA media and their current captain where Corboz explained perseverance is one of the main traits to achieve your dreams.
“I came to Germany in 2016 at MSV Duisburg, didn’t play, spent a year and a half there, and had to go down to the Fourth Division to kind of build my career back up,” he said when asked by iDiski Times what message he would send to aspiring kids in South Africa.
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“And yeah, it was quite hopeless. Actually, in 2017, I was thinking about [quitting]. I didn’t really want to go back to the US either. I was thinking about quitting football. And then I think my main quality and looking back, it was my main quality for my career, was just never giving up. I mean, it started when I was 14 or 15, on the junior national teams in the US.
“I wasn’t the best. There were some guys. I was like, ‘This guy is amazing’. And I think now, if you look back at that group, I’m the only one who’s still playing.
“So, I think a lot of the time, the guy who wins, the guy who never gives up, and is just being able to endure difficult phases and hardships and just keep going. And I come from a very privileged background.
“I don’t want to downplay that the difficulties in my career are nothing compared to what other people in the world are living in their daily lives. But I think it’s still the same, the same message, you know, if you have a dream, we don’t have much else in this life than just chasing that and never giving up.
“And I think that can be translated to very different situations.”
