Ahead of the European Championships at home, a political topic is popping up again. In a survey, some participants would like to see more white players in the national team. One team member takes a very clear stance.
Shortly before the European Championships at home, national soccer player Joshua Kimmich reacted with great displeasure to a survey according to which one in five Germans would prefer it if more white players were to play in the DFB selection again.
“Especially those who grew up in football know that this is absolute nonsense. Football in particular is an example of how you can unite different nations, different skin colours, different religions. That is what our team is all about. I would miss a lot of players if they weren’t here. That is absolutely racist and has no place in our dressing room,” said Kimmich in the DFB team’s European Championship quarters in Herzogenaurach. There are several players with a migrant background in national coach Julian Nagelsmann’s provisional 27-man squad.
“We are trying to get everyone behind us”
“When you consider that we are about to host a European Championship at home, it is absurd to ask such a question when the aim is actually to unite the whole country. It is now just about achieving great things together. As a team, we are trying to get everyone in Germany behind us,” said the 29-year-old FC Bayern Munich professional.
The majority of respondents (65 percent) did not agree or did not agree at all with the statement in the representative survey for the WDR program “Sport Inside.” And two thirds of the Germans surveyed think it is good that there are now many footballers on the national team who have a migrant background.
The survey was commissioned by Infratest dimap for the TV documentary “Unity and Justice and Diversity”. On April 2 and 3, 1,304 randomly selected voters were surveyed by telephone and online.
WDR sports director Karl Valks explained: “In interviews during the filming of the documentary “Unity and Justice and Diversity”, our reporter Philipp Awounou was confronted with the statement that there are too few “real”, light-skinned Germans on the football pitch. We deliberately did not want to report this anecdotally, but rather base it on well-founded data.”
That is why the TV station commissioned the survey. “We ourselves are dismayed that the results are what they are, but they are also an expression of the social situation in Germany today. Sport plays an important role in our society, the national team is a strong example of integration,” said Valks.
Source: Stern
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