Marco Streller, Alain Nef and Uli Forte successfully completed the sports management programme at the University of St.Gallen last week.
Together with Streller, Nef and Forte, 31 further students received their sports manager certificate, among them various former elite athletes (including a German international handball player and two former Bundesliga players) and managers from other sports. The programme is aimed at former athletes, executives and staff within sports-related companies, but also at career changers.
“When putting together the group of participants, it was important to us not only to admit former elite athletes, but also to give sports-minded executives from the private sector the chance to take part. In this way the students were able to benefit not only from the professors and practitioners, but also from their new network and from exchanging experiences with one another,” says Dr Christian Lang, programme director.
The career after the career
For athletes, life after their active career usually begins earlier than expected. What is more, the career after the career lasts considerably longer than the time as an active elite athlete. “After their professional career, elite athletes often face a major professional challenge. Quite a few are left to their own devices after their final competition. Yet only a fraction of athletes can, or want to, live off the money they have earned once their career is over,” says Prof. Dr Wolfgang Jenewein, academic director of the programme and Professor of Business Administration at the University of St.Gallen.
Prominent graduates
Alongside this year’s graduates, Christoph Spycher, Mladen Petrić, David Degen, Heiko Westermann and Gerald Asamoah have also completed the programme. And it is not only footballers among the names of their predecessors: Fränzi Aufdenblatten (former ski racer), Mark Streit (a Swiss ice hockey legend) and Fabian Cancellara (Olympic cycling champion) have successfully completed the course as well. “We are naturally proud that we already find a number of alumni in the management of major sports clubs,” says Prof. Dr Wolfgang Jenewein, whose research focuses on the leadership of high-performance teams.
(Source: HSG press release)
