Main themes
Main theme 1: Important characteristics and personality traits
Mindsets Ambition & work ethic	“With Ambition it is like with joy: if you don’t have ambition, you are not able to keep on fighting, but you will give up easily and you won’t be able to fight your way back into the team.”
Dedication	“Dedication is important, because if you trail in a game, but then don’t have the dedication to turn the game around, you will harm the team.”
Responsibility	“You must take responsibility, for example if you lead 3:0, you mustn’t think that the game is already won. You can always catch up to a 0:3 trail. At the same time, if you would trail 0:3, you shouldn’t hang your head. If your team won’t keep their head up, you have to motivate the team and tell them that it isn’t over yet.”
Self-efficacy	“You should only focus on yourself. If you’re at home it isn’t an excuse that you can’t work on yourself. You can always do something to improve, for example go running, improve your jumping ability, technique, strength, etc.”
Body language	“Body language: After negative experience, I will keep my head up and keep on fighting and encouraging my teammates and lead by example. I motivate my teammates and myself also in bad games.”
Dealing with mistakes	“Everybody makes mistakes. And afterwards you should go to that person and say: Mistakes happen, but you mustn’t give up now. Practice makes perfect.”
Strength of character	“Strength of character sums up everything. Without strength of character, you won’t become a professional soccer player.”
Courage & Self-Confidence	“Courage is important, because if you don’t dare, then you won’t have good actions and won’t help the team. And if something goes wrong it is not so bad, because you learn from your mistakes.”
Facing challenges	“You have respect towards challenges, but you don’t fear them.” “Through challenges I get better. They serve as performance motivation.”
Self-worth	“Every player is and must be treated equally because we are a team that stands together. Only because you are not as good in football, doesn’t mean that you are not a good person. Only because one is a good football player, doesn’t mean he is a better person.”
Main theme 2: Overriding values and principles
Cohesion	“Cohesion is important, because if you only go alone all the time, you will not help the team. Also, in difficult times, for example if you have lost a game you have to stand together, in order to win games again.”
Ubuntu^a	“Ubuntu means to me: Respect, dedication, fun, ambition, cohesion, togetherness, self-confidence, courage, strength of character, fighting spirit, and appreciation.”
Respect	“A respectful and fair treatment of teammates, coaches, referees and opposition is of utmost importance.”
Honesty	“In the character-building program it was demonstrated that honesty and respect are very important, because this strengthens trust among the team mates and therefore the dedication to win increases.”
Gratitude & Humility	“In addition, gratitude is very important. Being grateful and experiencing gratitude makes you happy. It is a pleasant experience to show gratitude.”
Joy	“Despite all the other facts, joy is the most important part of sports.”
Main theme 3: Ways to enhance performance
Nutrition	“Besides his intensive training, Cristiano Ronaldo became so good because of his good diet.”
Regeneration	“Erling Haaland swears by sleep. He even wears sleeping masks while sleeping, because he is able to relax better with it. This gives him a good feeling on the pitch.”
Athletic Training	“You have to take care of yourself: sleep enough and have a good diet. But you also have to train for yourself, strength, flexibility and your weak foot and passing You can train all that by yourself.”
Performance analysis	“I should keep my head up and to see if somebody is open. What I also learned is to scan the pitch, to recognize open space or if somebody is behind me. We had to analyze games, which helped me a lot, because I was able to analyze what the players did well and what they could improve.”
Main theme 4: Learning from role models
Michael Jordan	“Through the character-building program I also learned, that will, diligence, and ambition can bring me further. A good example here is Michael Jordan. He wasn’t nominated for the school basketball team. Afterwards he trained a lot and very intense, so that he became the best basketball player of all time.”
Robert Hilbert	“I learned a lot in the character-building program, in fact most of Roberto Hilbert. He was very successful as a player, for example in Turkey. His journey fascinated me, as he was in many different clubs. Therefore, he has a lot of experience and that interested me very much.”
Petr Ruman	“I learned things like: I shouldn’t focus on the others and compare myself to them, but instead focus on myself and always try to beat my own performance time and time again (Petr Ruman).”