Preview: I could had use this entry in an attempt to give my reactions and thoughts to FIFA President Sepp Blatter's wide-ranging interview on BBC Radio Five Live which took place on Thursday but, I decided to shelve it. On the eve of International Women's Day (yeah, a day for people like me), the unofficial weekend football focus series is making yours truly speaking as a female Bundesliga fan, about the case that is called Juergen Klinsmann.
If he ever leave his current Bayern Munich post no matter the circumstances which led to it, I will probably cry. Juergen Klinsmann had already once broke my heart when he did so after the 2006 World Cup when he stepped down from his Germany job. I still have not really 'forgiven' him for making me led to that state.
But to be serious, I can understand why he made the decision back then. But also to be honest, my 'love affair' with the German national team indirectly began with Klinsmann. At a time when I want to believe all is fine and well with the national team with his successor in charge when it is actually not the case, the Bundesliga became my 'refuge'. The buzzword may be that we are seeing a very open Bundesliga title race since the introduction of the three-point rule from the 1995/96 season, has anyone noticed that not since the start of the current season, Bayern has not even once topped the standings? Not being a football coach myself, I do not want to attempt to give reasons why it is the case.
The collective sigh of relief was only temporary in the German press after Bayern Munich chalked up the most biggest away win when it comes to its participation in European football in the first-leg of the last 16 of the Champions League away in Sporting Lisbon. At a time where the main talking point in the Champions League are about the Anglo-Italian clashes plus the Real Madrid-Liverpool match (or maybe it is how the English press chose to talk it up), the unexpected result came out of Portugal. 5-0, to Bayern. After the first-leg, the English press chose to see it (naturally) that all the four Premier League representatives (Manchester United despite the goalless draw, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal...the three recording slender 1-0 wins) are in for a shout in the quarter-finals. While from the Italian perspective (I am referring to the Anglo-Italian matchups), there's still all to play for in the second-leg. But what definitely caught me by surprise six days ago (even if I was feeling smug about it) was when I was reading an article from The Times which wrote beneath its headline of 'So, will anybody stop the English?' of this: Spanish and Italian failings may well leave the European Cup door open for a dark horse from outside the Mediterranean If anyone do not get the drift from the article, it is referring to Bayern Munich.
The article from The Times was written the day before Bayern Munich eventually drew 0-0 away at 10-man Werder Bremen. Then the exit from the DFB-Pokal quarter-final at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen this midweek with the club being in a 'crisis', again (considering how they had been of late on the domestic front). All the while since the start of the Champions League, Barcelona have been acknowledged as the favourites to win it. Of a sudden, that 5-0 scoreline has shaken things up. All the more Bayern is coached by someone who is a familar face in the English press. The former Tottenham Hotspur player Juergen Klinsmann. Via the Reuters Soccer Blog yesterday, I came across a Spurs fan forum and based on what I read how the fans responded to how they remembered him playing for their club (Klinsmann had two playing stints at Spurs), the former Germany coach is still well-liked in England. I put both my hands up, I was still in primary school during Klinsmann's two stints in English football and so I have to read up how he had always being remembered in England. Apart from his questionable goal celebration to say the least and the Beetle he own (I remembered that, considering in the midst of the World Cup three years ago, I read somewhere on the BBC website where it wrote about that during his playing time in England), he has always been regarded as one of the best foreign players to have played in the Premier League. Initially hated by the fans and the English press but in the end, he won the Player of the Year award in his first season in England.
And he is actually a German. Juergen Klinsmann being only the second German (there are a number of Germans who have played or are currently playing their club football in England, apart from a prominent fellow in the current captain of the German national team in Michael Ballack at Chelsea) after Bert Trautmann (when he was the goalkeeper for Manchester City) to be honoured in English football. In fact, it is not the first time like what happened last week (those Manchester City rumours) Klinsmann had been linked with a move to England, but as a manager. Even before he eventually landed the Germany job which also happened to be his first since his playing career ended, it has already happened. If what used to be written is true, he was once in the frame for the England job (before Fabio Capello got it). Shock, horror. A German being linked to the England job? Just to think how will Germans react if it is an Englishman coaching their national team. Current Fulham's globe-trotting manager Roy Hodgson (who speaks five languages and fluent in three) almost landed it himself.
But, it is not as if Juergen Klinsmann does not remembered his English. His wife is American and he live in the United States until his coaching adventure began and making him back in the public eye. I remembered in the midst of the 2006 World Cup, I asked my father what does he know about Klinsmann (given it came in the wake of me reading an article in the papers about him and Marco van Basten, two rookie national team coaches, with van Basten who is now at Ajax used to previously coach the Dutch national team). He only remembered Klinsmann used to play for Tottenham Hotspur. It was then I read that it was much more than that for the man who always have a reaction from the touchline during the tournament.
Since Juergen Klinsmann has been the Bayern Munich coach at the start of the current Bundesliga season, I had rarely seen him being so excited on the touchline. I missed the Klinsi of old. I missed the man who always jumped up and down during the 2006 World Cup and always made me wanted to giggle. I missed the man who always affords a smile to the TV cameras. It is becoming so rare for every less-than-desired result Bayern is getting on Bundesliga match days. It hurts so much that I feel like crying. And I am not even a Bayern fan in the first place. Like how I used to say yesterday: Even if I know I am a VfB Stuttgart supporter and should be laughing at Bayern's current fortunes, but look who is at the coaching hot seat over there? Twice my heart has actually been torn into two when Klinsmann's Bayern faced my club (in the league before the winter break began, and the DFB-Pokal last 16 which came about before the Bundesliga season officially resumed). I actually almost cried happy tears when I re-read how I look forward to the new Bundesliga season here in my country (on the day of my birthday - August 15, considering that is when the 2008/09 season began).
It was on my birthday the new Bundesliga season began. It was also on my birthday the Bundesliga is on the pay-TV here for the first time in my memory. And, it was also on my birthday it began with Juergen Klinsmann's Bayern Munich taking on Hamburg. I could not have asked for a better birthday present than seeing the man on the coaching touchline again. The man who is the main reason why I follow the Bundesliga after the 2006 World Cup was back on TV. That was all I cared back then. Then Bayern's inconsistent form in the league happened.
In times like these, I want to remind myself all over again on what made me watch German football in the first place. Like rediscovering...a long-lost love. It is definitely very personal. It is almost to the extent that if not for Klinsmann, will I be following the Bundesliga after the 2006 World Cup?...I cannot pretend that I do not always feel sorry for him whenever Bayern Munich are not doing well. He always has his critics, even back in the days when he was still the coach of the German national team.
I also said that yesterday. When I referred to that Klinsmann 'always has his critics', it was due to his so-called revolution. He changed the perception that German football mirrors the stereotypical view of the country of being efficient. It swept me off my feet three years ago during the World Cup to the extent I once remarked in the midst of the tournament that I rather see Germany than Brazil play. Ha! That was how much I had been taken with how the German national team played at their own backyard...as an England supporter. I only realised how it hit me when Germany lost to Italy in the semi-finals. Many hours after the match, I cried. For my entire life as an emotional person who can cry on cue, it was the first time I did so over a sporting event. A 'milestone', if you like to call it. Apart for the very first time, I watched a match in the wee hours of the morning (given that was the case back then when it was shown live at my side of the world).
The 'love affair' with the German national team might had since been dead and buried with whatever happened to the squad on the pitch in recent matches, it was briefly being rekindled all over again Juergen Klinsmann's successor in the German national team giving his backing. I only want to cry looking at the photo being used in the report. That was the world I used to know. No matter how much has changed in the national team since Klinsmann stepped down from his Germany job, no one can replace the man. No one. And since Klinsmann's Bayern Munich is going to play later today, I decide to re-post my 'open letter' to the man himself (which I first did so yesterday).
Klinsi, chin up! I am still behind you! You must first find out what has gone wrong on the domestic front and why it seemed to be alright when it comes to the Champions League. Please know, even if you may not know, you actually influence me to follow the Bundesliga after the World Cup. If not for you, I would not be following about the league since. The arrival of Hoffenheim may have make the league a little more exciting but, you are the main reason why I am a fan of the Bundesliga. Maybe it is a beautiful concidence you won the 'Goal of the Year' award back in 1987, because that was the year I came into this world but, you will always be associated with the 2006 World Cup to me. Even if there is some sort of struggle on the pitch with the German national team at the moment with your successor in charge, the World Cup three years ago was when my 'love affair' with the German national team began because of how the squad play. It was because of you. Please don't give up your work at Bayern Munich! Prove those who are criticising you now wrong this weekend against Hannover. I have always believe in you!
In fact, I actually called the title which I look forward to the start current Bundesliga season as: The start of something new. Adapting a line in the song, I knew something has happened to me since that summer of 2006 and it changed my life since. And it is the current Bayern Munich coach 'fault'. The opening lines to the song which inspired it...
Living in my own world
Didn't understand
That anything can happen
When you take a chance
I never believed in
What I couldn't see
I never opened my heart
To all the possibilities
I know that something has changed
