Football: The knee doesn’t work anymore – football
He likes to remember his time in Cottbus
“I have particularly fond memories of the time in Cottbus. I can still feel today what we achieved there and how grateful the people in Cottbus were. I keep getting messages from the fans from Lausitz. They write that they miss me. That pleases me immensely. The DFB Cup game against SC Freiburg was my personal highlight. I always think back to scoring and putting up such a reliable fight against the Bundesliga team,” said Viteritti, who played 100 games for Energie and hit the bull’s eye 30 times. Under coach “Pele” Wollitz, the promotion to the 3rd division was successful.
After the direct relegation, the midfielder was then hired by FSV Zwickau, where he played 30 games at the Dinger before accepting the adventure of Wacker Innsbruck. The ambitious second division team from Tyrol really wanted to play in the Austrian football league. But nothing came of it. Viteritti tore a cruciate ligament in his left knee in autumn 2021 and had to watch as Wacker Innsbruck got into financial turbulence. The search for investors turned into a slapstick act. The tabloid press in the Alpine republic has been happily talking about it in the past few weeks and months.
Viteritti noticed little of it. Because of his injury, he received sick pay. “Some of my teammates didn’t get paid for three or four months. It’s really difficult,” reports the 29-year-old. “It’s just a pity that something like this happens to a traditional club like Wacker,” he says. The chapter of professional football at FC Wacker Innsbruck has been history for a few days. Bankruptcy proceedings were opened.
The time in Innsbruck was nevertheless a good one, says Viteritti. “A great city and nice people. We could have imagined staying there for a long time. But then everything turned out differently,” explains Viteritti, who has been through a few moves in his football career. Not anymore. “As a footballer, it’s difficult to settle down. You wander from place to place, it’s hard to make friends. And the family has to take a backseat. “But now it’s going back to Lörrach and the surrounding area, and after a long time back to the bosom of the family.
An important story for Viteritti. He’s a real family man, so it’s not surprising that he cites moving to Magdeburg as a teenager as the hardest moment of his career. “The distance of seven hours was really tough, but looking back it also made me personal and self-reliant.”
From a sporting point of view, however, it was the two cruciate ligament tears that bothered him a lot. “Getting through that time when you can’t do what you love to do for six to nine months is brutally difficult,” he says.
Viteritti, who played three DFB Cup games and netted twice, appeared 64 times in the 3rd division and scored 13 goals and played 157 times in the Regionalliga Nordost and scored 39 times, is despite the end of his career at the beginning himself at peace. “When I think back, a broad grin crosses my face.” The fact that he has spent his career exclusively in traditional clubs makes him particularly happy. “The fans have always been amazing. I associate that with all my clubs.”