Longtime Bayer Leverkusen striker Stefan Kiessling really took “work smart, not hard” to new heights. The ex-German international, who recently retired and now is assistant to the Leverkusen sporting director, admitted that he let his wife Norina take some of his fitness tests and no one noticed.
According to the Mirror, Stefan, like most people, was never really into preseason workouts. Because Norina was athletic, she did some of the workouts and was so good that they kept it up throughout his career.
“I never did one hundred percent of the exercises in the preparation periods, not once,” Kiessling said.
“You get a heart rate monitor on which all runs are saved.
“As my wife is very athletic, she did some racing with the wristband according to my specs.”
“She did it so well that nobody noticed.”
Even though he slacked off in training, which isn’t usually something done by high end athletes, Kiessling had a pretty good career. In addition to representing Germany in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Kiessling played the majority of his 16 year career with Bayer Leverkusen, scoring 162 goals in 444 appearances, winning the Bundesliga Golden Boot in the 2012-13 season.
And if Norina was able to keep up with Stefan in preseason workouts, maybe she missed her calling in being an international soccer player. Clearly, she has the athletic ability and stamina to play, so combine that with some dribbling skills and a wicked shot, she could be a pretty good poacher in front of goal just like Stefan.
[Mirror/Photo: Mirror]