If you ask a football fan in the Ruhr area why he goes to the stadium, he doesn’t understand the question at all. “It’s Saturday!” At least that was the answer before all the crap with the Friday, Sunday or even Monday games.
When Sönke Wortmann (director) meets Frank Goosen (novelist), it’s about the Ruhr area, football and VfL Bochum. “Sommerfest” is the name of the Ruhrpott novel by Frank Goosens, which Sönke Wortmann has staged as a nostalgic comedy about the love-hate relationship with one’s own homeland. And I watched it on Netflix over the weekend and immediately remembered that I still have two unread books on the football shelf of my library.
Reminded me of this and immediately read it in one day – both.
Frank Goosen’s football stories, “Because it is Saturday” is also about the 2006 World Cup in Germany, “and suddenly you’re standing in the stands in a Germany jersey and singing about unity and justice and freedom. That’s what Jürgen [Klinsmann] did with his game.”
“Germany, a summer fairy tale”, the World Cup diary (2006) by Sönke Wortmann is a tribute to the cultural change in German football and to Jürgen Klinsmann, the symbolic figure for new beginnings and renewal with the following objectives,
✳ to show that we can build an identity where everyone can see themselves, whether it’s the fan, the players or those who work for the team.
✳ to develop a forward game that requires courage and inner conviction.
Find it on pages 195/96.
We now know that it took from 2006 to 2014 and five major tournaments to finally achieve the big goal of winning the World Cup. And the two objectives formulated by Klinsmann formed the basis for this title win.
Or to put it in the words of Frank Goosen (on pages 56/57): “When was the last time a German national team inspired me, emotionalized me and took me away? Finally, a German team that is not afraid of playing on the brink.”
➡ Courage, inner conviction and the creation of a unity of fans, players and management seems to be an effective recipe for success in order to be able to compete for big titles. What do you think?
My name is Bernd Scharbert and I write about experiences that can be transferred from football to business life. If you are interested, feel free to follow my hashtag #fussballmeetsbusiness at LinkedIn.
