21% of respondents said they would prefer to see more white players. 17% also believe that a player of foreign origin should not wear the captain’s armband, as is currently the case. Ilkay Gündogan, the German captain, is of Turkish origin.
Joshua Kimmich, the midfielder who sometimes wears the armband, considered that the subject of the public channel was “madness”. “This is absolutely racist. There’s no room for that at all. If you think about the fact that we are about to have a European Championship at home, then I find it absurd to ask such a question. Because for us, it’s about uniting a country,” he said at a press conference. “Anyone who grew up around football knows that this is absolute nonsense. Football is a good example of how you can unite different nations, skin colors and religions. And that’s exactly what it’s about for us. I would miss a lot of my teammates a lot if they weren’t here.”
This unexpected divorce that shocked all of Germany
The coach, Julian Nagelsmann, joined his player’s comments. “I always find it weird that we all go on vacation to experience other cultures, but when other cultures come here we complain about it.”he argued to defend a football that brings cultures together.
”I feel like we need to wake up a little”, he also said about the Euro preparation camp. “There are people in Europe who have had to flee because of war, economic factors, environmental disasters, and who just want to be welcome. We need to ask ourselves: what are we doing right now? We’re doing very, very well here. I find it strange that people can exclude such things.”
The Euro will be launched on June 14 in Germany. The Mannschaft will face Scotland, Hungary and Switzerland in the group stage.
