When the team went through the match plan together before kick-off in the “Stadium of Dreams”, captain Albert Ostermaier made an appeal to his teammates: “Short answers! We have to be through in two hours.” Between the colorful evening called “Opening Game” and the play “Roberto Baggio” this panel discussion by the SZ sports editorial team is planned. And Ostermaier, as the artistic director of the cultural program for the European Football Championship, is responsible for ensuring that everything works this Friday evening in the inner courtyard of the Gasteig, which now also bears the name “Fat Cat”.
The discussion should be about nothing less than the future of football – how on earth are we supposed to finish it in time for the play to start? Well, quite simply: with a few courageous tackles and an ideal guest like the straight-to-the-point comer Herbert Grönemeyer.
So right at the beginning I have a question or request: Can someone still sign Grönemeyer as an expert for the European Championships? Sure, the man has work to do, giving concerts and stuff. But perhaps the job can be made attractive to him, certainly not with money, but rather by pointing out his entertaining and eye-opening effect on the people’s soul.
The eternal Bochum player was, alongside former national player Célia Šašić and former national player (and 1996 European champion) Matthias Sammer, just one of the discussants in the round in the “Stadium of Dreams”, moderated by SZ sports department head Claudio Catuogno and his colleague Christof Kneer, this new one stage set up in the Gasteig inner courtyard. But he was by far the most impressive speaker. As much as people like to make fun of his rather special singing style for years, Grönemeyer always comes across as full of content, not unlike a certain Bob Dylan.
Although he doesn’t have as great a football background as Grönemeyer. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung He once claimed that he played football, made music and kissed – which inevitably raises the question “How do you play football, Mr. Grönemeyer?” – “Excellent!” he shouts like a shot from a pistol, “I’m also very versatile.” And leaves it open whether he means the music, the kissing or both.
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Since he rhymed one-two to opponents in his famous song “Bochum”, they have never been able to play another stadium song at VfL again. The young Grönemeyer once suffered one of the worst blows of his footballing career against VfL: 0:22, back then in the district performance class. “I wanted to be a footballer or a used car dealer,” he says, “but I soon realized that I wasn’t good enough. I thought to myself, ‘Maybe I’ll get into the stadium like that.'” Yo, it worked.
He arrives at the Stadium of Dreams in the Fat Cat a little uneven: his toe is broken. “I ran into the sofa three times in Japan,” he reports. This means he is still three classes better off than Célia Šašić, who is dependent on crutches after tearing her Achilles tendon. The fact that Europe’s Footballer of the Year in 2015 and today’s DFB Vice President for Diversity still came limping to the opening game: a matter of honor.
In addition to fond memories of the 2006 World Cup in Germany (“In the quarter-finals against Argentina, I was in the arms of a complete stranger every time she scored a goal”), she also brought with her a few hopeful expectations for the European Championships: She wants identity-forming moments that are important “for sticking together, for becoming resilient, so that we can reinvent ourselves as a society.”
Big words that Matthias Sammer obviously can’t stay behind. He also has to talk about 2006, when we “felt the power of football”. “But: Was it valuable or emotional?” he asks rhetorically, before launching into one of his worryingly meandering sentence structures with at least 740 secondary thoughts, which often start with “We have to again…” and simply don’t seem to end.
Herbert Grönemeyer, of course, also has his memories of 2006: “It was a great tournament. It was impressive how society presented itself there. But since then we have been managed, no longer inspired. Merkel has started to manage the country. That’s a shame. The People hunger for revitalization.” Now it’s time to wake up politicians: “Prudence and soul would do us good. Otherwise everything will start to wobble.”
His plea for the supposedly lazy young generation was also emotional: “They’re facing challenges today that we didn’t even know about. What they have to deal with! I wouldn’t have been able to do that at that age.” Those who were now gossiping about the youth belonged to the “as much as possible for me!” department, hence his demand: “We have to start thinking about each other.” When will the next Federal President be elected again? But maybe he’ll start off a bit smaller, as a EM expert. Please!