The hymns of praise for the German goalscorer Niclas Füllkrug have been a double relief since Sunday evening: The Werder Bremen center forward kept the team in the tournament with his equalizer against Spain – and he gave the game that simplicity for a moment thanks to his straightforwardness and taciturn power to act reproduced that the football world has lost.
The much-cited longing for the good old center forward – the “executor”, the “headball monster”, the “goal scorer” – is apparently not only related to football-tactical reasons. Undoubtedly, after fifteen years of the Tiki-Taka philosophy and endless ball relays without a mandatory conclusion, strikers like Niclas Füllkrug are sporting boom again. But the liberating fact that the work of a centre-forward does not seem to be just as important philosophy requires. It stands for the no frills game, for the simple fact that the ball has to go in the goal and the team that scores more goals wins the game in the end.
Niclas Füllkrug’s nickname is consistent: “Gap”
Especially at the World Cup in Qatar, which was shaped by political discourse, the appearance of Niclas Füllkrug has a metaphorical quality, as the enthusiastic reports of the last two days show. The giant with the gap in his teeth not only brings the game back to its true purpose, but also talking about it. A tactical as well as a discursive simplification is associated with the figure of the center forward (quite independent of the character and understanding of the world of the player himself). Füllkrug is a reminder of the core of football, which is also recognizable from the name of his position and his shirt number. Finally there is a “real nine” in the team again, not a false one like Havertz, Gnabry, Werner or Müller: bustling wingers and attacking midfielders who move in the middle of the storm under a hidden identity. With a filling jug, shirt number, position and player type come together again.
The quiet substitute, who rarely reflects on his game in public and, as commentators like to say, “answers on the pitch”, is being hailed as a boon at this World Cup. His nickname is consistent in a tournament overloaded with symbols, messages, statements and communiqués. Niclas Füllkrug is called “Gap”.
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