The downtoearth Swiss cannot understand the fuss made about him.
Swiss world-class export
Best defender of the World Championship in 2013, one of the best defenders of the NHL, and important player of the national team. The 25yearold key player from Berne has succeeded and is increasingly advancing to being a leadership figure. The downtoearth Swiss cannot understand the fuss made about him. The most important thing for Josi is team spirit: “When you work as a team, it also goes better on the ice. In a sport like hockey, the match is not decided by a single player. The best team wins in the end.” Roman Josi convinces with his power play regardless of whether in the national team or in the Nashville Predators team. A marathon man between training sessions, matches and journeys. His fitness secret? – Full effort. “Fitness comes automatically because of the many matches, and if you participate with full effort, you will automatically be fit. You get used to it and of course I do not complain when I may play a lot.” The World Championships and the NHL often coincide, especially when it comes to the exciting final stage of the finals or the playoffs. “I really enjoy taking part in the World Championships. It is always an honour to represent your home country in the World Championships,” said Josi, smiling with a twinkle in his eye, and added: “and it is of course always fun with the guys. Logically, a player also wants to make some progress in the playoffs in America.” Agility, quickness and excellent playmaking control are the qualities that characterise him; Josi is always on the ball. Recreation is of course a must. We hockey players are lucky in that there are no matches for four months during summer so that we can do some other things to give us some distraction,” said Josi, for example a parachute jump from an aeroplane. Together with the Breitling watch brand and its Transatlantic Flyers Club, which consists of eight Swiss hockey players who have all made the leap into the National Hockey League, Josi regularly dares to jump. Even a tough icehockey player can then get frightened every now and again. “The first jump was the worst; I was quite scared. The adrenalin level is even a bit higher during flying but it is always extremely cool.” For the future, the 25yearold rising star actually has only one thing in mind – to win. “The Stanley Cup is without doubt the ultimate goal of every icehockey player and it is also one of my goals. But it would of course also be cool to win the championships with the national team.” The national team already won the silver medal but with a goalscoring defender like Josi, the national team has all the potential to carry off a gold medal.
