Profile Michael Maze

Day of birth: 01.09.1981
Birthplace: Fakse (Denmark)
Nationality: Danish
Height: 1,85 m
Weight: 71 kg
Latest club: Roskilde BTK
Previous clubs: Kvik Naestved (til 1998), Borussia Düsseldorf (1998 to 2006), Levallois SC TT (2006 to 2008), Roskilde BTK (2008 to 2010), UMMC Ekaterinburg (2010 to 2014)
As a player of Borussia Düsseldorf: 1998 bis 2006  
Greatest world ranking: 8 (January 2010)  
Punch: Lefty

Equipment
Wood: Butterfly Maze Off
Rubber: Bryce Speed

Greatest successes:

European champion (Single) 2009
Silver medal at the european championship (Team) 2009
Bronze medal at the olympic games 2004 (Double with Finn Tugwell)
Bronze medal at the world championship (Single) 2005
Team european champion 2005
Winner of europe top 12 (Single) 2004
German champion with Borussia Düsseldorf 2002/2003
Bronze medal at the european championship (Single) 2007
French champion with Levallois SC TT 2008
Last sixteen at the world championship 2009

Other:

seven-time sportsman of the year in Denmark
Laureate of the BT gold medal for extraordinary performance 2005
Poker (7th place at the danish championship 2007)

Michael Maze: „The sensetive Beckham“ or "Danish Dynamite"?

In 1996 masterminded the 14 years old Michael Maze from Fakse in Denmark at the youth european championship at the technical Frydek-Mistek the attention of the table tennis world because he became pupil champion and also won in the double silver. In the following year reached the blonde dane at the boys team, a higher age class than his own, the final - this was the point as Borussia Düsseldorf thought: We need this boy!

At the age of 16 he (son of a dane and a london football player) signed his first contract with the german record champion. The coach at that time was our today's manager Andreas Preuß. He reminds this moment: "Michael was really quite, at the signing he did not spoke a word. This changed after a time, he grow to an opend-minded and charming guy who has a big heart and at the table it went sometimes through him." In point of fact: The young guy Michael possessed a brilliant approach but he had to learn to lost - the table kick, which became famous through the four years younger Christian Süß was acutally introduced from "danish dynmaite" Michael Maze. But he was also a positive hothead: His gaming style was dynamic and he was creative and sampled rare things - if he was once get going he was only difficult to stop for the opponent.

He evolved himself steadly along and if he say it today: "At Düsseldorf I had my second table tennis education." His first one he enjoyed at the danish club KVIK Naestved which recgonised his talent and which promotes him vast. That was after he canceld his football plans and focused on table tennis. Together with Magnus Molin, Lars Hielscher, Bastian Steger and the fifteen year old Christian Süß he form the so-called "Borussia-Boygroup" in the season 2001/02. There was the 21 years old Lars Hielscher the oldest guy in the group and cared for successes like two victories at the champions league group matches against Charleroi with Samsonov, Saive and Mitamura.

In 2002/03 Zichao Tian supplemented the boygroup and since than it came the big surprice: After reaching the third place at the Bundesliga main round, they won with a 5:5 in a homegame and a fantastic 6:0 in a return game the play-off semifinal against Gönnern. At the final they must played against the favourite Grenzau which won the first leg game with 6:4. In the return game defeated Maze Lucjan Blaszczyk and also against Ma Wenige with 3:1: At the end it was a victory with 6:3 for the boygroup and so it was the fantastic win of the german championship!

The personal ascent of the "sensetive Beckham" like Preuß called the danish number one, was went on, during it went not good for the Borussia. In 2004 Maze won the europe top 12. Together with Finn Tugwell he won the bronze medal in double at the olympic games in Athen. In 2005 he won the also bronze at the single games at the world championship in Shanghai and won the european championship with his team in a homegame. Maze star flash bright internationsl, the "Staufenplatz" reached always many letters from feminine admirers. Maze was Borussias popstar. With the team it did not looked well for the danish guy, the many appointments of the Bundesliga were to much for him - therefore he left the Borussia 2006, one year before the end of his contract.

He went to the french club Levallois and then he went back to his homeland to Roskilde Bordtennis. In this time he had one of his greates successes: At the european championship in Stuttgart he won in the semifinal against Timo Boll and in the final Werner Schlager. At the end he won the european championship 2009 with an incorruptible way to play. After this title his long injury crisis began: because of a bad knee injury he could not play for a long time. As this injury even had healed, he had to undergo two complicated hip replacements. But Maze is a fighter: Early in feburary 2014 he gave his comeback at the DHS europe cup in Lausanne. There he was only stopped from the portuguese Freitas. He is also be calmer than before like a quote of his website shows: "I am older and wiser now – and  I am confirmed in the fact that freaking out doesn’t help.“ Amazing Michael.