The FIFA World Football Museum welcomed a very special guest on Tuesday evening, 12 March 2016. Rüdiger Böhm, a motivational speaker, life coach and author, was invited by Celebrationpoint, a Swiss event agency, to discuss “challenges, limits and passion” in the new home of football history at Tessiner Platz in Zurich.
Böhm knows all too well that a person’s entire life can change in a matter of seconds as he lost both legs in a traffic accident in 1997. But, refusing to lie down, he fought his way back into life, becoming the first and only man without legs to receive the highest football coaching license offered by the German FA (DFB). For more than 15 years he enjoyed time as a successful coach with Karlsruher SC and FC Thun.
Roughly 50 guests watched the public event, moderated by Ewa Ming, in the museum’s banquet hall. Böhm, who is the the author “No legs, no limits”, discussed the power of mentality and mindset with the museum’s Managing Director Stefan Jost. A clear example of mind over matter, 45-year-old Böhm said: “When you never give up and be ready to invest something, the success will come. Life is about changes. You have to face new challenges every day Nowadays, if you don’t use the entire potential that is inside you, it’s your own fault!”
Jost reiterated Böhm’s comments, and underlined them with his own experiences. “In my career, I have always reached limits and then gone beyond them. When I take a look back nowadays, I feel like I could have taken a life coach much earlier ,“ said the museum’s director, who has worked a variety of different managerial positions for other global companies before joining the museum.
Before the podium discussion, the guests enjoyed a tour of the museum - opened to the public on February 28 this year. They also had the chance to experience many of the museum’s unique objects from the exciting history of football, as well as its interactive stations and audiovisual highlights. Speaking afterwards, Böhm said he was very happy with how things turned out. “It was a great evening with a highly interesting talk event and a museum that connects nostalgia and modernity in football in a fascinating way.”
You can read a detailed in-depth story about Rüdiger Böhms visit at the FIFA World Football Museum in the next edition of the monthly magazine “FIFA 1904” which will get released on April 29. Or discover some other high profile guests below...