2024 in review with Romano Schmid

WERDER.DE: Romano, thanks for joining us to discuss your 2024. How would you sum up the year in as few words as possible?

Romano Schmid: I would simply say - quick and significant improvement.

WERDER.DE: What exactly do you mean by quick?

Romano Schmid: At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t a regular starter and was also often on the bench for the national side at that point. I then got called up again in March and made ten or eleven appearances in the starting line-up for Austria. The only time that I started a match as a substitute for Werder was in the first game of the season, and proceeded to make it into the XI in every game from that point on. When I say quick, I mean the rate at which I secured my regular spot in both teams. That just goes to show how much you can achieve in a year.

WERDER.DE: Would you say that this has been the best year of your career?

Romano Schmid: Yes, without a doubt.

WERDER.DE: The numbers don’t lie. You only missed one game for Werder in this calendar year due to suspension, and were in action for Austria in every one of their fixtures. What incited this great run of form?

Romano Schmid: First and foremost, I would like to say a huge thank you to Stoxi (Günther Stoxreiter, Ed.), our fitness coach. I’ve been working closely with him for two years now, and he’s helped me develop in all areas. The physios also played a huge part in that too, of course. But now that the year is coming to an end, I’m starting to realise that I’m walking a bit of a tightrope, and my body is slowly telling me that it’s becoming tired.

WERDER.DE: What sort of things make that apparent?

Romano Schmid: You either start to make little mistakes on the pitch, notice something physically, or just feel exhausted. If you compare my pass completion rate last season with the first half of the current season, there’s a clear difference. I haven’t been as confident in my passing over the last few weeks as I was before, but that’s just part of the game. I’ll now recharge my batteries over the break and hit the ground running next year as I did in 2024.

WERDER.DE: Let’s take a look back on EURO 2024. That’s got to be one of your greatest moments from the year, right?

Romano Schmid: No, the highlight was the birth of my second son.The fact that everything happened in such quick succession was very tough and exhausting. I travelled home from being with the national team and my son was born, then I was in the starting XI for the friendly against Serbia just two days later. It was an emotional rollercoaster, just like the entirety of the year. There were lots of highs, but many moments where I wanted to be in two places at once, which is why it was mentally difficult at points.

WERDER.DE: From an outside perspective, you appear very confident, yet self-critical at the same time. How critical are you actually with your performance over the year?

Romano Schmid: The second half of the season was really good, in particular when I was at my prime in the final ten or eleven matches and scored. There’s nothing about that period that I could criticise.This was also the case with the national side in both the EUROs and the Nations League. I am, however, critical of my performances in this half of the year. I started really strong and we were doing well as a team, but I could have personally played better, even though I’m very important to the team and the statistics back that up. I’m not happy with how the last few matches and weeks went. As I mentioned, my body started to show signs of being tired and my concentration slipped as a result. I’m critical of that and am doing my best to work on it, but I realise that’s just part and parcel of the game. It was a long year and I was involved in just under 50 games. I’m really proud of that, but as a whole, I could have played even better.

"We’ve made considerable progress in the years under Ole."

WERDER.DE: You said at the start of the interview that it hadn’t only been a quick year, but also one full of progress. Which area of your performance do you personally see has made the biggest improvement?

Romano Schmid: I think it’s my presence on the pitch. With the exception of the last few weeks, I tried to not get too down when I made a mistake. I always aimed to help the team and to take the lead.