F ootball is always. Even when there is no Bundesliga play at the moment, players and clubs provide enough stories to fill the sports pages of the republic. The faintest fart that any football pro drops somewhere quickly becomes a scandal. In these days, there is a lot of talk about a 17-year-old football pro and his appearance at the FC Bayern fan club in Burgsinn, a backwater in Lower Franconia, in whose history the visit of 50 sheep to a supermarket branch is the only notable event. There the young Lennart Karl casually said that his dream is to one day play for Real Madrid.
That many Bayern fans found it so outrageous that one could safely call it a true shitstorm that had swept over the undeniably highly gifted youngster from Bayern Munich’s youth academy. He has been regarded as the new wunderkind of German football since his first appearances in the Bundesliga, since his first goal in the Champions League.
And instead of now thanking FC Bayern forever for having him, the club whose jersey Karl wears, since he moved from Aschaffenburg to Munich at age 14, he spoke of Real Madrid as his dream club.
Lifelong Pledge of Loyalty
That many Bayern fans find this so reprehensible that one wonders, given their Judas accusations, whether they have perhaps understood the direction in which the business of professional football has evolved over the past decades. They still seem to dream of the German super talent, whose first item of clothing is a Bayern romper from the record champion’s fan shop, who stays loyal to the club from youth to football retirement, and who really means it when he kisses the club crest on his jersey after a goal.
And a rather unpleasant dose of football patriotism also comes with the hatred that has been poured over Karl in recent days. The gist: the German super talent should please stay with the German super club. It won’t go as far as in the second half of the 70s, when not nominated for the national team under contract abroad. But the Karl debate certainly fits into the discussions about declarations of Germanness that have occurred in the recent national team history.
“The national team has nothing to do with whether I can play here or there. It is about whether I am proud to play for the country. I must feel that,” said national team coach Julian Nagelsmann before the last World Cup qualifying games in autumn. In response, defender Jonathan Tah felt obliged to clarify that he let his heart speak when he chose Germany’s jersey over that of the Ivory Coast, the country of his father’s origin.
As the football business becomes more global, the national team system becomes more identitarian. The annoying debates about national anthems in recent years were the precursors of a development toward nationalism, which unfortunately fits the societal rightward shift these days all too well.
By the way, Lennart Karl also had to apologize to the Bayern bosses for his dream. In the last friendly before the end of the winter break in the Bundesliga against Red Bull Salzburg, he scored two goals and assisted one. His performance was said to be one to marvel at. May he shine many more times — in which jersey and wherever!
