“I still have the medal to this day”

They grew up in the same place, went to the same school, both became professional footballers and finally reunited many years later in the Bundesliga at SV Werder Bremen. That’s the story of Cameron Puertas and Isaac Schmidt, who spoke to WERDER.DE in an exclusive interview in which they discussed their friendship, their time together at school and a very special running race.

WERDER.DE: Moin, Isaac and Cameron. You’ve known each other since your schooldays, both having grown up in the same area of Lausanne in Switzerland. Can you remember the first time you met?

Isaac Schmidt: That was back at school. I was ten years old, Cameron was in the year above, and we met on the playground, as we knew some of the same people.

WERDER.DE: How did you come to be such good friends after meeting, then?

Isaac Schmidt: A mix of things, really. The streets we lived on were only separated by one bridge, we had mutual friends, we did quite a bit as a big group. It was all a lot of fun.

Cameron Puertas: Then obviously football played a role. We used to meet with other people in our area after school to play football, either on my road or Isaac’s. We couldn’t avoid each other, to be honest (laughs).

WERDER.DE: After two years at the same school, you then fell out of touch before playing together at FC Lausanne-Sport in 2021. What happened there?

Isaac Schmidt: Correct, we went to the same school for a couple of years, then I changed schools. The other guys from our area thought I had moved away (laughs). I never actually left Lausanne, though, and I ended up starting out in FC Lausanne-Sport’s youth academy and eventually became a professional player there. Cameron first joined Lausanne-Sport in 2021.

Cameron Puertas: I was a goalkeeper (laughs), and I was just so busy with training. It didn’t leave me with a whole lot of time, so we lost contact until I joined Lausanne-Sport. Then we started seeing each other regularly again, which was great.

WERDER.DE: How was your time together at school, then? Who was the better student?

Cameron Puertas: Definitely Isaac (laughs). I was honestly really bad at school.

Isaac Schmidt: I was very good at maths and physics (laughs). I really liked those subjects.

WERDER.DE: What moments do you look back on fondly from that time of your lives?

Cameron Puertas: You have to tell him about our big race (laughs).

Isaac Schmidt: There’s this big run for schoolkids in year five in Lausanne. There were about 800 kids taking part. The quickest runners were given starting positions at the front, and qualification for those spots was decided through prior races at each school. I missed that qualification race for the best starting places.

Cameron Puertas: Because you had a very special reason (laughs).

Isaac Schmidt: I fancied a classmate at the time, and so I skived off this race at our school (laughs). I had to start right at the back as a result, and Cameron had a really good starting spot. He came third in the end and I was fourth – we were the best two guys from our school. I still have the medal to this day (laughs).

WERDER.DE: And then all these years later, you’re together again, competing in the Bundesliga for SV Werder Bremen. Who contacted who first, when you knew that you’d both be joining SVW?

Cameron Puertas: It was me. I moved to Werder on deadline day, and I sent Isaac a message that I was going to be joining the club. We were both really pleased, and we met up straight away.

WERDER.DE: How crazy do you find it that you both grew up in the same area of the same city, you both made it as professional footballers, and now you play for the same team in another country?

Isaac Schmidt: It’s great, but it’s also pretty unbelievable, for sure. You never know if you’ll be able to hack the jump up to being a professional when you’re young. The fact that we’ve played football together after school, at Lausanne-Sport and then here in the Bundesliga at Werder, is honestly crazy.

WERDER.DE: Your friendship surely helped you both to settle in here. What was the first thing that you did together here in Bremen?

Cameron Puertas: It definitely helped, yeah. The fact that we’d known each other for so many years made everything a lot easier. Even just in terms of the moving to a new city side of things. The first thing we did together in Bremen was go to the car dealership together, to get a car (laughs). Then we moved on to furniture.

WERDER.DE: Thanks for your time, lads!