Kai Havertz’s time at Chelsea has been nothing short of a rollercoaster as it started with him being involved in one of the most iconic moments in the club’s history. Havertz scored in the Champions League Final to win it for The Blues but now his form has dried up. Hence, the German midfielder has been receiving loads of criticism from experts as well as the fans.
The team is still starting to gel under Graham Potter and Havertz has also started to show signs of improvement in the last few games. Chelsea fans would hope that the midfielder comes back to his best.
Meanwhile, Kai Havertz has opened up on the fact that he is nicknamed ‘Donkey’ by his teammates and it has nothing to do with his game. He has said “From day one, I felt a special relationship with donkeys. It’s a very calm animal: maybe I personalize myself in them because I’m calm too.
“They chill all day, don’t do much, just want to live their life. I loved them always. And when I lost, I would go to the sanctuary. You look at the animals and see something human in them. It was a kind of recovery, a place I felt peace.”
It’s worth mentioning that Havertz's first connection with donkeys was at a young age when his parents gifted him a cuddly donkey toy. His love for donkeys increased to such an extent that at 18 years of age, he adopted 3 donkeys from a sanctuary.
The German also announced the Kai Havertz Stiftung which is a charity for animal welfare, youth &elderly care and sporting youth development. One of their current projects is breakfast4all which aims at providing breakfast to over 1100 children from the Aachen area.
Another project is the Donkey Park Zones, a privately run sanctuary for animals. Since 2006, Peter and Darinka Norff have mainly taken care of donkeys in need. In particular, they take in donkeys that are not kept in a species-appropriate manner or rescue them from slaughterhouses.
Over the years, many other animal species such as sheep, goats, pot-bellied pigs, and chickens have found a new home for life in the donkey park.
