Ich habe mich verliebt in den deutschen Fußball, seine Spieler, seine Stadien, seine Clubs und über alles seine Fans.
Well, somewhere after that sentence my german needs severe help (hopefully one day I’d be able to rewrite this entire post in german). But as a long time football fan with my OG team being english (Leicester City), I’ve really been enchanted by the magic since my trip to Berlin and I just fell in love with the german game in the last couple of months since. I find the fan culture here so original and fascinating and even though Bayern has won the league the last decade the rest of the league is just so increadibly fun to follow, unlike for instance the premier league or my native swedish league. In the prem the same teams six teams always (or at least usually) run the table, but in the Bundesliga (and the Bundesliga 2) there are always stories to follow from top to bottom, like Union Berlin last season, the downfall of “giants” Schalke-Hamburg-Hertha of the last years, the rise of Leverkusen. The list goes on. And then we have the fans, with their unrivaled atmosphere, like which 3rd division teams sees the support that Dynamo Dresden sees? Which fans have the hate-love-relationship that Union & Hertha fans have forged in history och culture? etc.
This might be a stupid post, but this is my love letter to german football and the magic it encompasses. Y’all have made a fan for live. One day I will stand in the Ostkurve and sing (hopefully in german).
Mit Liebe
50+1 is the way to go. Premiere League is a joke now with that money involved
Also one more tip for you, maybe watch the game Nürnberg vs. Schalke this saturday at 13:00 CEST. Both teams have an very good friendship between the fans and will make a choreo in the stadium in collaboration. Its a friendship thats nearly unmatched (atleast in my opinion - maybe biased) within professional german football. Atmosphere will be something different
Not just nearly - i‘d say it is unmatched. While i think the Gladbach-Liverpool friendship is even more interesting, i don’t think there‘s plenty of clubs with a connection as strong as Schalke & der FCN. I think Hertha-KSC is pretty cool too though.
I think Hertha - Ksc is the same if not even stronger. When KSC plays in Berlin there will be a fan fest starting in the morning in a hall the supporters rented for the day. There will be a welcoming at the train station as well. I don’t know of the same thing is happening for the fcn SO4 derby tho
They won’t sit in the usual away end either, as a tribute to Karlsruhe’s old stadium. Imo, Hertha - KSC is one of the strongest friendships in German football.