There were exactly four days between Axel Hellmann’s prophecy, Uli Hoeneß’s bow and Oliver Mintzlaff’s announcement.
On Thursday, Eintracht Frankfurt spokesman Hellmann, euphoric about his club’s epic European Cup victory, proclaimed the renaissance of tradition. “We gave German and European football back the romance that you can move borders,” Hellmann said. In the future, those clubs would be successful “that approach their people”.
On Saturday, Bayern patriarch Hoeneß praised the “crazy” Eintracht fans and said on RTL: “I’m not normally one to keep my fingers crossed for other clubs in Germany, but I’ve already caught myself. Frankfurt is now a small role model for all of us, that you can move mountains in cooperation with the fan base and the whole environment.”
On Sunday, Leipzig’s CEO Mintzlaff stood on the market square with the DFB Cup he had got hold of, he mixed defiance into his self-confident presentation: “Anyone who still hasn’t understood that RB Leipzig is an integral part of German football can no longer be helped – and we don’t want to help them anymore!”
There were oscillating days behind football, and stark contrasts played out on the keyboard. The keyboard raised questions: Who is football actually? Who was he maybe once, and who could he be (again)?
In the 13th year of its existence, Leipzig won its first title against the popular SC Freiburg (see: Contrasts). The response was manageable, the Bundesliga congratulated cautiously, German football fans do not warm to these people from Leipzig and their 21 voting members. The Red Bull Group holds 99 percent of the capital in the outsourced RasenBallsport GmbH, that alone, RasenBallsport, a trick to circumvent the advertising ban: horror for many.
It’s not like “it’s a construct where there are no emotions,” emphasized Mintzlaff on Sunday at the reception in the city, where around 35,000 fans celebrated. “There are so many laughing, happy and friendly people here who just love and live RB Leipzig just like FC fans, Dortmund or Schalke fans do.”
A different, distinct, inorganic culture prevails there: the calculated maximization of success through reach. Sympathies projected onto the brand are necessary, but sometimes it seems as if they are deliberately provocative in the Red Bull universe.
Immediately after the final whistle of the cup final, Leipzig coach Domenico Tedesco righteously spoke to referee Sascha Stegemann, accusing the Freiburg bank of “pure hatred”, the next day RB tweeted to see midfielder Kevin Kampl pouring his own energy drink into the cup.
So the suspicion of hubris arose. We against the Saxon-Austrian wagon train. “Get used to it,” Leipzig wrote on social media about the cup win, RB actually combines fabulous footballers with financial power and, don’t forget, an entrepreneurial doctrine. What’s that worth? For the semi-final second leg of the Europa League at Glasgow Rangers, they drew Leipziger didn’t even use up their ticket contingent, and the public smiled mockingly.
At the same time, Frankfurt celebrated a trip that was admired across Europe, not least by Hoeneß. At least 200,000, more like 300,000 people lined the Main metropolis after the final victory against Glasgow. Hellmann announced the return of romance, but even before Mintzlaff verbalized the RB way, football got another message that torpedoed the archaic Frankfurt European Cup victories.
On Saturday evening, exceptional striker Kylian Mbappé extended his contract with Paris Saint-Germain until 2025 – although everyone expected a move to Real Madrid. Including Real Madrid. Now Mbappé is absurdly overloaded, reports range from 120 to 300 million (!) in earnest money and from 60 to 100 million annual salaries, just because they can do it in Paris.
These are cynical, obscene sums. The even more significant turning point is probably the powers that Mbappé can exercise at PSG, he has a say in transfers and the selection of officials. So, 23-year-old Mbappé influences who coaches him. An unprecedented event.
“No one is bigger than the club,” said Bayern boss Oliver Kahn in the posse surrounding Robert Lewandowski. That may apply to Munich, but not necessarily to Europe’s super phalanx. Or not anymore. The Parisian actions make it clear how badly the system is suffering in that area in which sports washing is practiced, the instrumentalization of football for propaganda purposes.
PSG has been supported by Qatar since 2011, Manchester City by Abu Dhabi from the United Arab Emirates since 2008, and the latest locust is Saudi Arabia. The attack of the oil states, directed gigantism. The fact that a well-run club like Eintracht Frankfurt has won the European Cup more often (once) in the past 25 years than ManCity and PSG together is nice.
Still. the noose will narrow, ever further, for Hellmann’s Frankfurter, Hoeneß’ Bayern and also Mintzlaff’s Leipziger. Last year, Real offered up to 200 million euros for Mbappé, who was so popular that he could play the parties off against each other to increase money and power. Clever or bold, you decide.
The Spanish league announced complaints to the EU, Uefa and French authorities. Such an agreement would threaten the economic stability of football as well as hundreds of thousands of jobs and the integrity of the sport if it were said it was scandalous because PSG had lost over 220 million in the previous season and had previously lost 700 million.
That’s not how it works, raged league boss Javier Tebas, condemning Mbappé’s contract volume as an “insult” to football. PSG President Nasser Al-Khelaifi is anyway “as dangerous as the Super League”, which a handful of renegades wanted to enforce a year ago. The revolution failed miserably. First of all.
The bad guys and the good guys? Oh yes. Real Madrid, proud and sophisticated and of course badly damaged by PSG, was a founding member of the Super League by the way.
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