Anniversaries come in intervals and make us look back and reminisce about events past, either long past or not so long. The World Cup of 2006 is such an event to look back and remember the summer that shaped an entire generation of football fans. The so-called summer fairy tale of 2006, by not we…
A few weeks ago I was on the Parisian underground when I saw a guy walking towards me with a scarf of my home town club, FC Magdeburg. I stopped him and asked if he was a supporter. He said no, he wasn’t but added that a friend of his gave him the scarf as…
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…
A former professional footballer speaks about his anxieties in an insecure working environment, shattering some stereotypes of professional football.The most popular image of professional football is one of fun and the idea of having turned a hobby into a profession that provides an income. While this may be true for the top players and the…
It has become some kind of an established pattern to batter East German clubs for their violent support, most notably this season Dynamo Dresden for the events before, during and after their cup match against Borussia Dortmund on October 25 at the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund. Even worse, it has become a pattern not just to…
It appears that after Michael Ballack has been the last player from East Germany playing for the German national team and who also held the captain’s arm band and for a number of years has been Germany’s best player.Today Toni Kroos is the only one with roots in the former GDR. There used to be…
Leipzig, city of heroes it is often referred to. The credit is due and well deserved as the city was the cradle from which the East German ‘velvet revolution’ began and spread across the GDR in 1989. In football however, the city resembles a working station, a lab, which experiments with football and produces new…