Mallorca Overcome Tragedy After – Former Roger Schmidt Protege Becomes Gardener in Mallorca to Overcome Tragedy

After ending his professional football career in January, Kevin Kampl found the ideal refuge to start anew in the tranquility of Mallorca. The former Slovenian international, 35, decided to amicably terminate his contract with RB Leipzig last January, six months before its scheduled end, stepping away from the pitch following the unexpected deaths of his father and brother in a short period of time. In his property in Spain, the ex-midfielder traded the pressure of high-level football for cultivating the land, an activity that has served as a pillar to overcome family grief. In statements to the German newspaper Bild, Kampl did not hide the difficulty of the recent period but highlighted the positive impact of the change of scenery. “I had a pretty terrible year, there’s no other word to describe it. Life has to go on, although it has been very hard to accept everything that happened. The peace and quiet we have in Mallorca have done us all a lot of good,” confessed the former player. In his new daily routine, the work in the field is already starting to bear fruit and is a source of pride for the family. “We have melons, watermelons, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and much more. Everything grows like crazy here, and the olive oil we produce is delicious,” he revealed about the agricultural production on the island. With a career mostly built in German football—where he represented clubs like Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, Greuther Fürth, Osnabrück, and Aalen, in addition to a successful stint with Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg—Kampl left his deepest mark at RB Leipzig. While serving the German club, where he joined in the summer of 2017, he played 283 official matches and won two consecutive DFB-Pokal titles in 2022 and 2023. Kampl maintained a very strong connection with Roger Schmidt—the coach who would later manage Benfica—working under the German at two clubs. Their joint journey began precisely at Red Bull Salzburg, between 2012 and 2014, where the Slovenian stood out in European football and won the “double” (league and Austrian Cup) in the 2013/14 season. They later reunited at Bayer Leverkusen, between 2015 and 2017, in a project for which Kampl transferred from Borussia Dortmund, specifically to be coached by the German again. The understanding between them was so pronounced that the player publicly admitted he was close to moving to Beijing Guoan in China, just to follow the coach after his departure from German football. Despite the radical change in lifestyle and the 28 caps accumulated with the Slovenian national team, the former midfielder assures that he has not severed ties with the sport or with the club where he played for nearly a decade. “I always keep up with what RB Leipzig is doing and will continue to do so. I will also be in the city a lot, so who knows what the future holds,” he concluded, leaving the door open for future collaboration with the German emblem.

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