Adidas boss Bjørn Gulden sees the Germans’ attitude, especially when it comes to football, as too negative. “You are overly critical. It’s almost like this: You become world champion – and then the first thing that says is: ‘Played badly, but became world champion.’ That’s a bit typically German,” said the Norwegian, who played as a professional for 1. FC Nürnberg in the 2nd Bundesliga in the 80s, in the podcast ‘Spielmacher – The EM Talk by Sebastian Hellmann and 360Media’. With a view to Sky expert and former national player Dietmar Hamann, he added: “The German team is being criticized very harshly. You are 85 million experts and you all have the last name Hamann.”
He feels that the relationship between the Germans and their national team is such that “nobody loves anyone else. You Germans sometimes like not to love each other,” said Gulden, who was a member of the Borussia Dortmund supervisory board from 2014 to 2022. That also affects the team. “But in the end you will love each other. I’m 100 percent sure that if you see the German players, they have the quality for at least the semi-finals. Six players from your team could play for any team in the world.”
Nevertheless, the negativity is a problem: “Then it is clear that when you play, you have the feeling that everyone is against you. And when it comes down to nothing, it’s clear that as a player you’re not completely hungry.” You also have to “exude a bit of joy and positivity” in the DFB. I felt like that was a bit missing.” In his home country there is more of a quality problem: “We have the best striker in the world in Erling Haaland and one of the best midfielders in Martin Ødegaard – and we didn’t qualify for the European Championships.”
Gulden believes that the European Championships in the summer could bring about a change in mood in Germany. This could “come at the right time. We need a 2006 like that again with a good atmosphere, fan miles, party, joy and I really hope that it happens because I think that’s what everyone needs, especially the young generation who recently lost two, three, four years due to Corona has. They need fire again.” (dpa)