Team player explains:

“The break in our relationship has done us both good!”

Anastasia Sterner and Linz-AG-Froschberg president Günther Renner.(Bild: Leblhuber Georg)

Last summer, the table tennis "marriage" between Anastasia Sterner (20) and her favorite club seemed to have broken up - now the team player is returning to series champions Linz AG Froschberg after a year in France. Even more remarkable: the new beginning doesn't even require a contract.  

Only when the ship sinks do you realize how nice it was on land!

"Günther, we need to talk." With these words, Anastasia Sterner called Günther Renner months ago. The Linz AG Foschberg boss. Whose sporting star she once was. At the age of 15, he had guided the native Belarusian to Austria, pushed for her naturalization and helped her mature into a table tennis team player. Before tensions arose and Sterner left Linz for France last summer in disagreement. "Although I had offers from Austria. But even then I wouldn't have had the heart to play against Linz," recalls the right-hander.

I wouldn't have had the heart to play against Linz back then.

Linz-AG-Froschberg-Heimkehrerin Anastasia Sterner

"Don't need a contract"

In contrast to her time with Austria's subscription champions, she always played in France, but was never happy. She soon missed her favorite club - so she picked up the phone last autumn.

"I was surprised when she called - I would never have done that," admitted Renner, as he happily revealed: "She's coming back in the summer - and we didn't even need a written contract because the trust is there."

 "The break in the relationship was good for both of us," says Sterner, who only has this to say about the resolved conflict: "I grew up in Linz, I'm 20 now, but I was still treated like the child I was when I came to Linz at 15." "She's right, although I always meant well," admits Renner, for whose Champions League ambitions Sterner is of course an ideal reinforcement.