On Monday Maximilian Arnold had looked forward to a week that promised him an encounter with his unfulfilled longing. While he and the rest of the VfL Wolfsburg crew would start preparing for a test match against second division Hansa Rostock on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., the national team was supposed to come together for the first training session for the international match against Liechtenstein at the same hour on practice area D.
The national team and Maximilian Arnold, that is the story of a futile desire. For seven long years, the VfL Wolfsburg midfielder has been hoping that his first invitation to the DFB team could be followed by a second, but his only appearance in a goalless friendly against Poland before the 2014 World Cup is – apart from a digression on the U21s – so far Commitment to Germany remained. When he was not nominated again in the spring, despite noticeably demonstrable performances, Arnold, 27, uttered a sentence that still goes to the heart: “If I had gone, it wouldn’t have hurt anyone. I can’t understand it.”
But now Arnold received the call he had been waiting for so long. National coach Hansi Flick had asked his VfL colleague Florian Kohfeldt on Tuesday morning for the clearance for Arnold and his teammate Ridle Baku, who should – or may – complete the national team, which had been decimated considerably overnight: The luck of the late-calling Arnold and Baku – another successor is Kevin Volland, who was summoned from Monaco – follows the misfortune of Niklas Süle from Munich, who tested positive for the corona virus on Monday evening, and a group of four in his entourage. Although the tests were negative for the four players, because the authorities classified them as first-degree contacts, Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Karim Adeyemi and Jamal Musiala also had to leave the team hotel and the city of Wolfsburg immediately. FC Bayern also announced that attacker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting would have to be in quarantine as a contact person.
The infection of the fully vaccinated Süle and the consequences for his travel company are fueling the debate about protection against Covid-19 in sports
One can assume that it suddenly became quite hectic on Monday evening at the Ritz Carlton in Wolfsburg after Süle’s result was available. The tests, initially designed as pool tests for six players each, are intended as a precautionary measure, now the extended emergency had occurred. Fortunately, Süle has no complaints.
The authorities of the DFB, who informed the press conference on Tuesday about the state of affairs, did not want to answer why only the four named and not the four other passengers of the private plane that took off in Munich had to make their way home. When asked whether Gnabry, Musiala and Adeyemi had not yet received any vaccinations in addition to Kimmich, who is known to have not been vaccinated, DFB team doctor Tim Meyer referred to the obligation to maintain confidentiality. The order of the responsible health department in Munich included “several aspects”, explained the professor, the vaccination status was one of them.
Oliver Bierhoff and team doctor Prof Dr. Tim Meyer at the press conference.
(Photo: Susanne Hübner / imago images / Hübner)
The infection of the fully vaccinated Süle and the consequences for his travel company are fueling the debate about protection against Covid-19 in professional football and in sport, that was evident at the latest when the internist and corona expert Meyer came to the scene instead of a hopeful national player Podium took place. Meyer had drafted the plan during the first lockdown in spring 2020 that brought the disused Bundesliga back onto the field, he knows the political dimension of his work. On the long return trip in a limousine operated by the DFB driver service (each player had to be driven home individually), Kimmich is also likely to have dealt with the fact that the discussion about his views on the corona defense may have to start all over again. Ever since he admitted his vaccination status after an apparently deliberate indiscretion, he has known the enormous political impact of the issue.
In the DFB warehouse in Wolfsburg, operations will continue as planned for the time being. The training was postponed from morning to afternoon. Manuel Neuer, Thomas Müller, Leroy Sané and Leon Goretzka, the remaining members of the Munich travel group, were allowed to take part under certain precautions. The situation is “not easy,” said DFB director Oliver Bierhoff, “but now I have not seen any great dismay, but a rather relaxed atmosphere and relaxed behavior.”
The incident should not change anything in the special program of the Wolfsburg Festival. The three points for the World Cup qualification, which will be awarded on Thursday evening in the encounter with Liechtenstein, remain a marginal aspect not only because the Germans have long been qualified. The focus of the evening is the salute for Flick’s predecessor Jogi Löw, whom the DFB would like to celebrate before the game. Lukas Podolski, Miroslav Klose and Per Mertesacker have announced themselves as party guests. The actual celebration will take place later in the hotel.
Here and there the association has already been criticized for setting up the stage for the farewell act on the sidelines of a game against the humble opponent Liechtenstein, but it was Jogi Löw who had previously fought against an event in his honor. According to the DFB, he wanted to give Flick the attention, but that is probably only half the motive: It is not one of Löw’s preferences to be pushed into the center. Nevertheless, it will not be okay with him that the topic of Corona has now come to the fore again for the time being.