Football fairy tale! German exchange student celebrated as a hero in America

Munich/Stratford – The story is something out of a Disney movie: a German exchange student America Became a football player. Although he has never played the game professionally!

Lawrence Blattner is currently at Stratford High School in Wisconsin as part of an exchange student program.

In the finals of a major WIAA (Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, Division 6) school tournament between the Stratford Tigers and the Darlington Redbirds, Munich’s teenager became the tournament winner.

Plattner converted the decisive field goal for the Tigers just seconds before the final whistle. This was his first successful attempt at American football. A native of Munich, he only played football for a few years in Germany.

With this heroic story, the German national even entered American news programs.

Overjoyed and proud, in a subsequent television interview with Carly Marotta, the teenager explained that she “never” expected something like that.

“I definitely want another chance to prove that I can do it. After I kicked the first one, I felt a little down and sad,” said Plattner, who missed his first field goal attempt of the game.

“If we lose this game, I’ll be a fool. A fool who can’t shoot a field goal.”

How did the teenager manage to keep his stress level despite the initial failure? Blattner shows his forearm and it says: “Just like training”.

He always remembered this phrase. They practiced hard before the game. “Do as you do in training,” he told himself.

Former NFL kicker Dominique Eberle (27) congratulated Plattner on X (formerly Twitter): “Congratulations Lawrence!!! Keep it up.”