I see crowds of people in German streets: orange like the Dutch, red like the Turks, colorful like life. And only very rarely does the memory pop into my head that just three years ago we were watching European Championship games in front of thinned-out stadium stands. The Corona period is not as long ago as we think. We have just repressed the issue.
It was Joshua Kimmich who finally made me realize what I had locked away in the back of my mind. Hostility between vaccination advocates and opponents: The ZDF documentary about him as a “leader and driver” catapulted me back on Saturday evening to the days when I wanted to send Kimmich to hell. Today I am ashamed of it.
Kimmich refused Corona vaccination – documentary made me think
In 2021, it came out that Kimmich had refused every corona vaccination. He felt he was not sufficiently informed about what the vaccines would do to his body. But because the body is the greatest asset, as with every top athlete, he refused the industry-standard prick in the upper arm. When his skepticism became public, the world collapsed on him.
The ZDF documentary ruthlessly exposes his suffering. His employer, FC Bayern, stopped his salary. A friend blamed his refusal for people dying. When Kimmich starts talking about it, he turns the camera away. No one should see his tears. The wounds are, unlike our memories, still fresh.
At that moment, shame crept up inside me. I, too, sharply criticized Kimmich at the time for ignoring his role model function. I still believe that vaccination is the best way to combat any pandemic. But malice and anger at fellow citizens who think differently? The documentary about Kimmich and his tears got me thinking.
We sports journalists too often ignore the person Kimmich
Back then, I only saw his role: Bayern professional, national player, aspiring captain, leader and driver – a role model. We place demands and expectations on such a gifted footballer that ignore the most important thing: him as a person, husband, father. The reason is easy to see: we sports journalists mostly experience him as an athlete.
And athletes who are supposed to be role models get vaccinated so that everyone can see: It helps – let’s follow his example. But athletes are people and have feelings, concerns, fears, worries – you just don’t see them. The jersey is a uniform that makes all football players look the same. But they aren’t. The Kimmich documentary brutally holds a mirror up to our faces.
We see Joshua Kimmich as he makes his way into professional football, suddenly being able to claim his place in the Bayern dressing room and having to defend it on the training ground, building a life with his wife and now four children, celebrating the topping-out ceremony and doing the Schuhplattler. I couldn’t get enough of these insights.
And now that I realize how my opinion of Kimmich has been turned upside down, I ask myself: Why aren’t there more of these documentaries that aren’t for marketing purposes, but show a person as he is? With transparency, we would also understand the athlete and his work better. Not just during the Corona period.
