Reading interviews with active footballers is
like beach-combing with a blindfold on. The chances of stumbling on something
worthwhile among the miles of sand and seaweed are as high as a player saying
something interesting under the watchful auspices of their agents and club
press officers. Very occasionally, though, you might come across a pearl, or at least a nice colourful cowrie.
 |
| "If someone says football's the only thing in my life, I think that's stupid." |
It's especially pleasing to hear from players who can look beyond the game. In the latest issue of German
monthly 11 Freunde, the Hoffenheim striker Sandro Wagner talks about football's place in society. Wagner, who made his German international debut this past
summer at the age of 29, is a feisty, physical player who, to say the least, has
made himself unpopular down the years with opposing fans thanks to his robust style.
He fouls a lot, and he gets fouled a lot.
I like him, though. Last season when he
played for Hoffenheim at Eintracht Frankfurt he took a nasty, deliberate elbow
to the face from Frankfurt's captain David Abraham, which went unseen and
unpunished by the referees. Wagner got up, played on, and after the game made
no fuss about it at all. In the 11 Freunde interview he says that Abraham
apologised for the incident even as the game was still being played, and for
him that was the end of the matter.
What I really like in the interview, though,
is when he answers the question, "Do fans take football too
seriously?" Wagner replies, "I see it like a lot of fans do - I love
football, it's the greatest sport in the world. But many go over the top. If
someone says to me, football's the only thing in my life, then I think that's
stupid. To someone like that I
