National team
Joining forces with the fans for Füllkrug about authenticity
Niclas Füllkrug answers the journalists’ questions. photo
© Jürgen Kessler/dpa
The national team and the difficult path back to the fans – for Niclas Füllkrug, authenticity is the only way to do it. Before the home EM 2024, every game counts.
National soccer player Niclas Füllkrug sees the DFB selection walking a “fine line” in the difficult relationship with their own fans. The national team, which is playing against Ukraine in Bremen today, wants to be “touchable” and “close to touch”. However, it is crucial to remain authentic, said the professional soccer player from Werder Bremen on Sunday in Frankfurt/Main before his home game.
It is “but also touchable when someone is critical, when someone goes over the top, when someone is perhaps not perfect,” said the striker, who will be in the starting XI. “I think it has little to do with being down to earth, always perfect, always sticking to the rules. I think it’s about being real. It’s about the fans and the people buy that.”
Füllkrug: “Want to spark enthusiasm”
A year before the home European Championship kicks off on June 14, 2024 in Munich, for the DFB selection of national coach Hansi Flick, every game is about winning back the supporters after the preliminary round at two World Cups in a row. The game against Ukraine will be followed by the games in Warsaw against Poland next Friday and on June 20th in Gelsenkirchen against Colombia.
“I’m totally thrilled, not everyone is unenthusiastic,” said Füllkrug about the general soccer mood in the country. “We want to spark enthusiasm, that’s clear. We’re trying to do that too. But it mustn’t be artificial under any circumstances.” This also included the media and “also the fan who might take a step towards us, which we then also need”.
The 30-year-old criticized that “a lot was interpreted negatively”. He found the autograph card campaign after a public training session on the DFB campus in Frankfurt/Main “simply beautiful”. “The children were all really happy, they were really happy. And that’s what it’s all about in the end, it’s not about reporting online that we’re close to the fans, it’s about making the local fans happy to do,” he said.