When the scoreboards in Munich’s subway stations warn again of “impairments and increased passenger numbers due to a football game in Fröttmaning” on Saturday lunchtime, you know: FC Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga soccer players have a home game in the arena – and the fans are allowed after one and a half years pandemic-related restrictions are pouring there again en masse. Anyone traveling with the U6 will see themselves surrounded by red scarves this Saturday and alternately hear the clinking of beer bottles and wild fan chants in unexpectedly cramped wagons. And yet: people are happy and enjoy it.
Christian Barner from Trudering, for example, who goes to the home game against Hoffenheim with his eight and nine-year-old sons. Barner comes from Cologne and has been a Bayern fan since 1981. He persevered in his home country until a few years ago his job ended up in Munich, where he worked for a hydraulics company. Today, Anton, the younger son, is allowed to go into the arena for the first time – and the preparation could not have gone better: He got a jersey (Lewandowski) today, on his eighth birthday, and Anton has already been with him at the TSV Trudering football match that morning contributed a header to the 3-1 win against SV Anzing. Anzing, that says something to football fans. Anzing is the ancestral home of the FC Bayern goalkeeper legend Sepp Maier.
Some of the Barners revolve around their favorite club. The two boys who storm for TSV Trudering are members of the FCB’s kids club. And when the dad moved from the Rhine to the south, he ended up with the supplier of a not entirely insignificant prop: “We shut up in the arena.” That lid that will open when the professionals come out of the catacombs onto the Fröttmaninger Arena lawn.
Enthusiastic Bayern fans: Anton, Christian and Paul Barner (from left) from Trudering in front of the Fröttmaninger Arena.
(Photo: Tom Soyer)
For years he had envied his customer service colleagues for the most popular job in the entire company. Because if the hydraulics had failed, a technician was always available for manual operation. Previously. “But it never broke, of course,” says Barner, and then the trio disappears through the controls into the stadium.
Hans-Peter Heusserer, who has traveled with wife Barbara and three children from the Austrian Eibiswald (Styria), cheers afterwards: “Long scho koa has a feeling more!” Son Leonhard, his friend Fabio and daughter Luisa are sitting in the arena in red shirts with a huge Bayern emblem and are really happy that they can crown their trip to Munich. Your caravan is on the Thalkirchen campsite – and your heart beats for Bavaria.
Hans-Peter Heusserer, who has traveled from Styria with his wife Barbara, son Leonhard, daughter Luisa and friend Fabio (front right), cheers: “Long scho koa so a Felling more!” For her, a visit to the arena is the highlight of a trip to Munich with a caravan.
(Photo: Tom Soyer)
They are five out of a total of “only” 60,000 visitors to the arena. 75,000 were allowed to go back inside – for the first time. Stadium announcer Stephan Lehmann tries not to show that he would have preferred to cheer a full house with more euphoria in this announcement to the audience – and above all warmly welcomes the always singing, always trembling south curve with the FC Bayern ultras. Before the game, they finally picked up all their flagpoles and giant drums in the storage rooms labeled “Arbeitskreis Fandialog” to create a good mood in the stands. In the stadium, the hardcore Bavarians then unleash a powerful sound level of encouragement.
Georg Welke appreciates that too. He was a season ticket holder for the “Red Devils” at Betzenberg for 15 years, but turned away from 1. FC Kaiserslautern with disappointment (“I couldn’t stand it”) and is now a Bayern fan. With the right dentist. He was prevented today and gave Welke his VIP card for the game. Not because Welke is such a diligent dentist, but because they know each other from the regulars’ table.
In the arena there are repeated calls for “Super Bayern, Super Bayern, hey-hey-hey”, four goals are scored against Hoffenheim. The mood is good, but not at the limit in the wide area around the stadium. The top stands remain free, there is more to do. In terms of the number of spectators and in terms of emotion.
But for Hatiçe Kalmaz, who has 22 employees at several kiosks in the arena and has sausages and drinks ready for the fans, the joy and satisfaction after this match could not be greater. The shop was closed for a year and a half, and finally her people are making money again, and so is she. She has been in the arena with her operations since 2005. The expected 4: 0 against Hoffenheim secures Bayern the top of the table. And a surprising amount of good hope for her and her staff.