Good morning, dear reader,
The thought came to me during the 7-1 win by the German national team last Sunday in the World Cup game against Curaçao. More precisely, in the 63rd minute.
Germany central defender Jonathan Tah hit a through ball to the starting Leroy Sané. He suddenly had space because he can (if he wants) sense, feel and play football so much faster than others. Sané jumped, almost seemed to float, as he controlled the ball with a part of his body that lies somewhere between the bottom of the calf and the heel and where you and I have no feel for the ball. It was a painting of a ball receiving.
The leather obeyed and fell in front of his shooting leg, a good 12 meters from the opponent’s goal. Sané looked up briefly and aimed at the top left corner of the goal. I jumped up from the couch, my mouth opened to scream and…
… Sané shot the ball past the goal on the left. The scene collapsed like a soufflé taken out of the oven too quickly.
Let’s keep it short because I’m really not proud of it. But I said some things about Leroy Sané at that moment that were very unkind. “He HAS to do it,” was the most harmless thing I said.
Since then, I’ve been asking myself why I was so angry when Leroy Sané ruined this great opportunity. Happens to me more often with him. He makes me angrier, honestly, than I would have been in a comparable scene Lennart Karl would have been in whose position Sané is playing at this World Cup because Karl is unfortunately injured.
The best answer I’ve found for myself is this: I’m “cheating” with Leroy Sané. I really do. And it seems to me that I’m not alone. I deliberately use the word “strange”.
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Because I ask myself: Does it have to do with his skin color? Now you might be thinking: “Please don’t use the racism club.” And I understand you. But I also asked myself the same thing about football in Germany because this harsh criticism, this deep anger towards Sané that is coming at him from so many sides/so many directions, seems so irrational to me. And what is more irrational than racism? Well, maybe football, but after that there is nothing more irrational than racism.
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For myself, I rejected the idea. I don’t want to say that I’m not racist, because racists in particular like to say that. I’ll put it this way: I’m happy that the German national team, in its diversity, is a reflection of modern Germany, in which I feel comfortable and at home, despite all the problems. And if the German team plays a good, successful World Cup, I would be happy. I don’t care who plays for this team or where they come from.
But anyway, to finish the thought: Has one Leroy Sane in Germany you have just as good a chance of a fair or even caring evaluation of your performance as one Florian Wirtz? A Kai Havertz? A Nick Woltemade? Or does he get a harsher look because of how he looks?
II spoke about this with people who know the football scene. Hansi Küpper is a true institution as a television football commentator; he follows the Bundesliga for Sky. Küpper cannot detect any racism in the criticism of Sané: “Many players with a migrant background are celebrated or even demanded by the public. Sané is simply a mood player who repeatedly attracts attention with unfortunate body language and poor performance.”
Matthias Killing, presenter at Sat.1 and ProSieben, feels that Sané reminds him of tennis star Alexander Zverev: “He’s not a sonny boy either, he’s also offensive, the Germans don’t like that. He’s also being wronged because we don’t recognize his successes as he deserves.” Sané has a similar effect in public perception. “For me he is a brilliant footballer, a huge talent. But it’s strange: he never won the hearts of the Germans.”
Uli Köhler, one of the most intimate experts at FC Bayern Munich, experienced Sané at Säbener Straße for five years: “Leroy is a fine guy, rather reserved by nature,” he says. To the outside world, Sané often seems more frustrated than motivated and, above all, uninterested in working defensively. In Munich, Sané earned like a difference player, says Köhler. “Only: He has never made the difference in five years.” Sané didn’t win a single game for FC Bayern single-handedly. Himself Pep Guardiolacoaching guru and Sané fan, dropped him at Manchester City for this reason, the reporter reminds us: “That says a lot.”
In fact, one often comes across this idea in connection with Sané: that of an “unfulfilled promise”. Leroy Sané is a footballer who is only born every few years. He would have the ability to shape this sport, to be admired, to collect awards and titles like other people collect stamps. For himself, for the fans and for his country.
He never fulfilled that promise. No championship title he won with Munich, Manchester or Istanbul is associated with his name. Sané was there at best. “His” time in the national team is, as of now, one of the biggest dry spells in German football history. Was that entirely his fault? Absolutely not. But Sané hasn’t prevented the DFB team’s many low points in recent years, even though he might have been able to with his talent.
What he is capable of is shown regularly. When Germany was on the verge of being eliminated from the World Cup in the game against Slovakia at the end of last year after a poor World Cup qualifying round, Sané took over the game. He scored two goals, led the Nagelsmann team to a 6-0 win and a ticket to the World Cup. In doing so, he once again nurtured the hope that he could be the X factor that takes Germany to the top.