Henry Winter meets Merlin Röhl, about Everton, education and his new photography book
Merlin Röhl, Everton’s super-bright midfielder and occasional full-back, talks so passionately and intelligently about the importance of footballers training the eye to improve their game that it was no complete surprise to discover his mother is a doctor specialising in the eye. It is also no complete surprise that Röhl’s finely-tuned eye helps him develop as a photographer with a newly-published book of his work.
Röhl was walking back into the dressing-room at Finch Farm on Thursday morning when he noted two of David Moyes’ assistant managers, Leighton Baines and Billy McKinlay, chatting with a couple of players. The tableau immediately appealed to Röhl on two levels: the obvious camaraderie amongst Moyes’ squad and also the image attracted his photographer’s eye. So he got his Leica M6 out and snapped away. Staff and players are used to this now, not least because Baines himself is a talented photographer.
“We were coming in from training,” Röhl recalls, “and just sitting in front of the dressing room, a few lads, and Leighton and Billy were telling a story. They were laughing the whole time, pointing at each other. This situation meant so much to me. The connections between people. I took 20, 30 photos.”
Finch Farm has a family feel and Baines is almost a mentor to Röhl, who joined Everton on loan from Freiburg last year, impressed, and has now signed permanently. “When we talk about the mental side, and I was saying, ‘my mind works a lot’, it’s sometimes the same for Leighton. We can be quite similar in certain thoughts, we share them, and then we help each other to find a balance in our life.
“Leighton was talking the other day about ‘something has a significance, and sometimes the same thing has an insignificance’. When you’re injured, of course, the significance of your injury is so high, but also it’s maybe just a small adductor injury and compared to some real health problems is nothing. That helps to put something into perspective, to just enjoy the life, and that helps me a lot.”
Röhl has a very active brain. “I would say so. There are certain days where I come home from training and think about so many things, my past and the lives of other people. Something needs to help me to live a life where I can help my brain to calm down a little bit – so I pick up a camera, do some photos.
“Leighton was talking the other day about ‘something has a significance, and sometimes the same thing has an insignificance’. When you’re injured, of course, the significance of your injury is so high, but also it’s maybe just a small adductor injury and compared to some real health problems is nothing. That helps to put something into perspective, to just enjoy life. That helps me a lot.”
(Image credit: Merlin Röhl)
Baines and Seamus Coleman encouraged Röhl’s lens work. While providing opportunity for photography, injury has impeded some of his impact but Röhl is clearly a well-regarded team-mate. It’s why the players have accommodated his picture-taking. Rohl certainly gets close-ups. In his new photo-book, “Life with Everton”, one picture of Michael Keane and Vitaliy Mikolenko playing chess in the dressing-room captures the defenders utterly absorbed in their game and utterly unaware of the camera.
It’s in black and white, which Rohl loves, also reflecting his admiration for a photographer famed for his black-and-white work. “The most famous one is Henri Cartier-Bresson! Legend! In the beginning, I looked at his photos and was like, ‘nice photos’. As soon as you know more about photography, you know more how brilliant he was. When I look at his photographs, step by step, I find something I was never thinking about, see how much detail you can put into a photo from composition, and how perfect his photos are.
Röhl mentions one in particular. “There’s a picture where it was really about the background – a really small reflection of a bicycle.” Taken by Cartier-Bresson in 1932, the photo is titled “Hyeres, France” but also known as “The Cyclist”. “He was completely aware of how to put those little things in. That’s what fascinated me about his pictures.”
Should it be so strange? Footballer as photographer? Eric Dier has a passion for photography as does Baines. Alfie Whiteman, the former Tottenham Hotspur keeper, has already had an exhibition of his photos. Players often talk about having “pictures” in their head, snap-shots of where team-mates are on the pitch.
Röhl nods when I mention he’s used to framing images on the field, scanning where everyone is, especially when he plays in midfield. “As a footballer, you need to do that framing. I’m a player who is visualising a lot, thinking, dreaming, about certain patterns, images and situations. And if there’s another connection to being a photographer, you also need to have imagination.”
Which is why Röhl’s favourite player is a Brazilian legend. “Kaka is the most famous player that I really loved to watch. He had a joy of playing, the speed and technical ability. That’s something I’m still dreaming about getting on the pitch.” Starting out, Röhl played as a 10 at times in Germany. “A lot of players have a technical ability. But when your physical output is so high, when you’re running so much, you’re pressing, then it’s so hard to be very good technically in those very important moments. It was there that Kaka was one of the best.”
Of the current generation, Röhl name-checks a player he encountered in the DFB-Pokal. “When I was in Germany, I played against Jude Bellingham,” Röhl recalls of when his first club, Ingolstadt, visited Borussia Dortmund in 2021. “Oh, wow, I really enjoyed that.” Rohl played more of a no.10 role in that game and saw Bellingham close up. “The ability to keep the ball in difficult situations is something where he’s incredible. He’s rarely losing the ball. That puts him, really, as a stand-out player from a lot of the players at the top. He can play every position, is just so versatile, just keeps the ball – and then he scores.”
As a footballer, you need to do that framing. I’m a player who is visualising a lot, thinking, dreaming, about certain patterns, images and situations.
Merlin Röhl
Röhl was only 19, playing for the Bundesliga.2 side before moving to Freiburg the following year. He’s always wanted to be a footballer. Röhl grew up in a home in Potsdam where his parents encouraged him to explore all his potential, academic and sporting, and self-development. “Both my parents are doctors. The situation at home was they created something where I can do whatever I want. A lot of people normally have ‘you need this job or that job, you need to earn the money’. My parents gave me love, freedom and all the opportunities to pursue a little bit of an artistic way of living my life.
“Just having people giving you trust and love for the whole life, and putting you in a position where I have the courage to do certain things, to share my thoughts, and to express myself be on the pitch. That’s something that my parents gave me, and that’s something I really, really love.”
His parents were keen on their son doing his Abitur, the German equivalent of A-levels despite the demands of football. “At Ingolstadt, where I was becoming professional, it was quite difficult at that time. The manager wanted me in the first-team squad, and played me, but my school was not completely matched with the training schedule. The manager was just saying, ‘Merlin, I cannot move the training. You need to be out of school. Because you will be a professional football player, and you don’t need the school’.”
That didn’t go down well at home. “My parents were like, ‘No, it’s the most important thing in life: go to school, get your Abitur’.’ I didn’t play for a few games. I got my Abitur. Afterwards, I was playing. It worked out. I had the dream in my head. I was 16, 17, I want to be a midfielder. I want to play in the Premier League.” To develop, he analysed those in his position. “I watched players that had some similar attributes or I wanted some attributes in my game. I watched (Ryan) Gravenberch in the beginning. He takes on the ball a lot, has great turns in the middle, and also very tall.” Röhl himself is 6ft 3in.
“Football opened up a new life for me, where I’m financially so stable, where I have something that I have such a big passion for. If I wouldn’t have football, it would be really hard for me to find something where I would have that passion. Also the pressure of earning money would be there.” What might he have done? “Maybe medicine would be interesting. Neuro-science would be something I’m really interested in to understand our brain and how we see the world.”
He’s only 24 but has already thought about his post-playing career, including studying and teaching how even elite footballers can find an extra edge. “Eye exercises,” Röhl says. “I played in the middle a lot, and both eyes need to turn a lot, even the head needs to turn about. In the beginning, when I switched the first few games to right-back, I had a weird sensation in my neck, because my neck was always being in one position, but never doing this (swivelling). Not a lot of people are aware of that: if the football changes, your eye needs to change.”
He’s done different vision exercises, training the muscle, since his early days at Ingolstadt and Freiburg. “It’s something I really believe in. It’s massive. Quite a few clubs have a trainer who teaches you.” They taught him certain routines. “A lot, yes. I have a stick with numbers on it.” He focuses on each number in turn to strengthen his field of vision. “Your eye needs to go from far to very near. I also do a lot of eye switches. I have a metronome. It goes 100 beats per minute, and then your eyes switch like this (Rohl moves his eyes quickly left to right, right to left). It’s training a muscle. If you have fast eyes, you can track the ball faster and then switch faster to the player where you want to play the ball.”
An option for Moyes in midfield and full-back, Röhl is loving being in this Everton squad. “We got now a little bit smaller group than last year, but very strong characters, very good players. It’s something that shows in training and in the games, we have people that step up in big moments, and that’s very special.”
Everton are currently fifth, heading into a challenging game on Saturday against Chelsea at a noisy Hill Dickinson Stadium. “Everton fans always support us. They demand a lot from us, and that’s something that creates a lot of energy between the team and the supporters, and a lot of intensity on the pitch. We fight to get (deliver) the expectations of the fans. It’s something that’s very special.
“I always have the feeling we need to win every game so we meet expectations. I like the feeling of work as hard as possible and then you get the best outcome. I find that much, much better than just to say, ‘maybe we just try to be in the middle of the table and see what comes when we play’. I really like the pressure. I really like the expectations.”
And Röhl really likes Hill Dickinson Stadium. “It’s big. It’s loud. It’s a stadium where we had last season a great moment when we drew Manchester City (3-3 in May, Röhl came on). It was very special for me that day. When we, as the players, perform it’s like the stadium explodes.
Everton fans always support us. They demand a lot from us, and that’s something that creates a lot of energy between the team and the supporters.
Merlin Röhl
“I’m starting to realise how big this club is. I’m sometimes trying to explain it to German people. I even tried to explain it to a German journalist last week, because I felt that he was not aware of how big Everton is. He was like, ‘yeah, you have this big club in your city. How does it feel to have Liverpool in your city?’ And I was trying to explain to him how big Everton is in this country, and how famous this club is, the history, the expectation. Some people just need a little bit of a reminder, so I’m happy to express that.”
Röhl seen quickly that Everton are more than a club. They are embedded in the community, doing vital outreach work in some of the poorer parts of the country. “Step by step, I will have a deeper connection to the community work here, and try to be connected more to the club, and what they do all around the city, and to understand the city more, and the people that live here. You mentioned poor areas. This club means so much to the people and can help people to get away from certain things (in life) that are really, really hard.” Röhl donates a large chunk of the proceeds from his book to Everton Multi-Academy Trust, because of his passion for education.
Blessed with a huge curiosity for other people, Röhl thinks about the mental challenges facing others. “A normal person with a normal job, there goes so much on in the brain like trying to work out the bills, thinking about the kids, and then there’s so much anger inside of so many people, because everything is so hard. That’s where the brain is sorting everything out.”
Röhl is conscious, almost very self-conscious, of his privilege in being a professional footballer. “Football opened up a new life for me, where I’m financially so stable, where I have something that I have such a big passion for. If I wouldn’t have football, it would be really hard for me to find something where I would have that passion. Also the pressure of earning money would be there.” What might he have done? “Maybe medicine would be interesting. Neuro-science would be something I’m really interested in to understand our brain and how we see the world.” Through strong eyes.
