Hundreds of games, numerous victories, defeats, highs and lows later, Armin looks back on his career with gratitude. “I like being with the Grizzlys, I know what I get out of the club, and I think they know what they get out of me, too…”, says the veteran in conversation. “And what a life after a sports career looks like, one has to really think about” he adds. He openly admits that it is not easy to deal with the emotions when, as a 34-year-old professional athlete, you realise that your body is no longer quite playing along as you would like it to. “You then see the young ones pushing, you realise how your own body is signalling that something has to change.” That’s how he sums up the thought process of the last two years for himself.

After his professional career, Armin Wurm does not want to return to the metal industry, he has been away from it for too long, too much has changed. Therefore, he has used another facet of professional sport to find a perspective for the future – the relationship with sponsors. For Armin Wurm, sponsors are not just financial backers who have placed their logo around the ice hockey arena. “After 15 years, I know the club inside out. Some sponsors you see at every game, many are interested in talking to the players and ask how our daily routine works, want to gain more insight into the life of the club. That’s how I got in touch with Rainer Gruhlke. When Rainer found out that I would be leaving the Grizzlys after the next season, he offered me an internship so that I could take a close look at the IT scene and his company COMbridge. I was able to look into different areas, got to attend meetings, do some coding and bring my experience from professional sports into the product development of the sports apps that COMbridge develops.”

Whether Armin will be part of the COMbridge team in the future or not remains to be seen. What is certain, however, is that Armin will bring a lot of potential to his next task, whatever that may be. As a professional athlete, he has learned to remain ambitious even when things don’t work out, to keep at it, to work with passion towards a goal and above all: working as a team. “You can only be successful as a team,” Armin says with great determination. In keeping with our slogan “IT is a team sport”, we would be delighted for Armin to join our team with his qualities in the future. But whatever his life path looks like after the Grizzlys, we certainly hope Armin is as successful in his life after the Grizzlys as he has been so far.