Around the guest appearance of the Turkish selection, pure racism is breaking out on social media. The anthem discussion is also flaring up again.
Wrong whistles? Guest fans at the game between Germany and Turkey in Berlin Photo: dpa
What an impudence! What can the Turks think of? Just win against Germany. And that too in Berlin. The game was supposed to be something like the start of a big wave of euphoria before the home European Championship next year. At least that’s what tournament director and former German international Philipp Lahm imagined before the game. And then this!
Anyone who took a look into the depths of social networks was quickly provided with a scapegoat for the defeat: the German captain İlkay Gündoğan. Of course, the Germans couldn’t win at all because the captain didn’t belt out the national anthem loudly into the Berlin night sky.
The anthem discussion started before kick-off. It’s just devastating. At least Gündoğan wore a captain’s armband in the national colors. How great the defeat of the Germans would have been if he had – bad, bad! – would have worn a cuff in rainbow colors, you can’t even imagine.
German enough?
The debate as to whether Gündoğan, who was born in Gelsenkirchen, is German enough for the German national team, had already begun in the days before the game against Turkey. The picture about the unspeakable meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdoğan before the 2018 World Cup in Russia celebrated a comeback many thousand times over on social media.
Here too, the message was clear. For most agitators, the FC Barcelona midfielder is playing for the Germans on probation, as if the slightest misstep would threaten him with expulsion from the national team.
People of similar mentality then complained on TwiX that the German Turks booed the Germans mercilessly on Saturday in Berlin. They would probably like to expel these, in their eyes, ungrateful guests who are unwilling to integrate and who cannot behave themselves, immediately. It’s a brutal mood that has broken out on social media.
There may not really be any anticipation for the European Championships next year. The Turkish national team has already secured qualification. You can now face a debate about how it can be that people of Turkish origin here cheer on Turkish footballers and whistle at Germans instead of falling on their knees in gratitude for the society that allows them to stay here and pay taxes already horrified.
