FC St. Pauli

"We have everything we need here to make the best-possible preparations for the second half of the campaign," said Mets in reply to a question about returning to Benidorm, where his St. Pauli career began a year ago to the day on 5 January 2023. The Estonian defender, who originally arrived on loan from FC Zurich before signing a permanent deal in summer, got a little emotional when talking about the accomplishments of the past year. "I'm really proud of the team and every individual player," he said. "The attitude has been superb. Everyone invested so much energy to ensure we did as well as we did last year. Not everything was perfect, but I look more at myself there. I know I could have done a couple of things better."

Not even the biggest optimists could have envisaged the last 12 months going so well. "When I arrived a year ago, I saw the quality in the team," Mets continued. "It was obvious to me that we weren't playing to our potential. What was lacking was confidence. That returned with the opening game at Nürnberg, and it was a very successful journey from then on." What followed was 41 points and the most successful second half of the season in the club's history, starting with ten wins in a row. The Boys in Brown have continued to impress this season, going unbeaten in a full half-season for the first time ever.

Karol Mets (here with Oladapo Afolayan) had lots of reasons to celebrate in the last 12 months.

To make the best-possible start to 2024, the players will prepare in Benidorm until next Saturday. Mets, who was a virtual ever-present in 2023, is expecting an intensive training camp and praised the team spirit at the club: "We'll train long and hard. It'll also be important for us as a team to spend time together and talk a lot. We have lots of good characters in the squad. No one puts their ego above the group. You can talk normally to all the lads and be yourself. I feel free within the group and that's a very pleasant feeling."

Mets capped an excellent year by picking up the Estonian Footballer of the Year award in early December. The strong-tackling left-sided defender is an accomplished passer of the ball and hopes to do his bit to help the team continue their remarkable run of form with more impressive performances, starting with the home game against Kaiserslautern, which he knows will be a tough one: "I remember the reverse fixture well. They're a very flexible team. They can press high up the field but also sit back and keep things tight. I expect it to be another challenging encounter, not just physically."

Karol Mets is one of the best passers of a ball in the second division. A total of 94.1 per cent of his passes found a teammate in the first half of the season.

Our No3 is also clear in his mind about what the rest of the campaign will boil down to: "It'll be very important for us to keep calm mentally. The pressure will increase. For me, the season's only starts in earnest now. Every game will be important. We'll face teams who are desperate to beat us because we're still unbeaten and above them in the table. The second half of the season is going to be very hard, possibly the hardest of my career, but I'm ready."

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters