Euro 2024 Archives ⋆ An Old International

More “WE”, Less “I”

Football is often overburdened with social problems that are not easily solved even in society. Football is a mirror of society and as such works as a prism for the workings of the people.

In a rare moment of fragility, the German national coach Julian Nagelsmann had to fight back his tears after his team lost to Spain in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Euros. It was a little sentence delivered almost at the end of his press conference that reverberated through the night.

He spoke of society in need of more “We” moments than “I”. Yet, way more remarkable was his statement that we need to think more solution oriented than being focused too much on problems. This is a very important point as we, as society, simply need to replace one word with another: not crisis but task for which there is a solution.

riding through the storm

Who marches so late through the night dark and drear? It’s Germany’s team, for Euro 2024 they steer. Moritz von Schwind, Erlkönig, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The quote above originates from Johan Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem “Erlkönig”. These two lines are the opening lines of the poem. They are quite fitting to describe Germany’s…

Clouds over Germany

While for many the European Championships will be a festival of football, other thoughts need to be considered, too. Many people will remember the 2006 men’s World Cup held in Germany. It was a tournament accompanied by five weeks of wonderful weather and an atmosphere that surprised hosts and visitors alike. Though the end was…

Walking backwards into the future

The World Cup 2022 in Qatar ended just as the previous edition in a desaster when the team were eliminated during the group stages of the tournament. It initiated a debate about the national coach, Hansi Flick who fially stayed in office and about the manager and sporting director Oliver Bierhoff. The latter handed in…