Bayern’s Kimmich test positive for coronavirus shows football not immune to crisis in Germany


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ESPN’s senior Bundesliga commentator Derek Rae explains why it is impossible to fully discuss the league’s issues at the moment without the COVID-19 factor, as the pandemic is impacting the daily lives of Germans.


I realize COVID-19 is not what every Bundesliga fan wants to read, but it undeniably has a huge say in this season for players and fans alike. You can’t really follow German football right now without realizing that the virus off the pitch underlies virtually every story about it. News that broke on Wednesday confirming positive tests for unvaccinated Bayern Munich players Joshua Kimmich and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting has only taken to another level.

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Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann is sick of hearing the word ‘corona’, as the Germans call it, and you can see why. The manager recently recovered from COVID-19, but has had to be frustratedly content in the interim with building a makeshift tactics desk in his kitchen while practice sessions and games unfolded without he can attend it in person.

Since the coach’s return to his office and the technical area, Bayern as a club have been hit hard by COVID-19 as the fourth wave dominates news networks at all times. There is no escape as federal and state governments introduce measures designed to stop the spread. The RKI, roughly equivalent to the CDC in the United States, has advised all German residents to reduce their contact and consider whether attending a rally is really necessary.

Bayern defenders Niklas Sule and Josip Stanisic recently tested positive, sparking a wider discussion about the rallies.

In Nagelsmann’s press conference ahead of what ended up being a painful 2-1 loss to modest Augsburg, 95% of the talk was about the coronavirus. Most of these issues were related to rules requiring unvaccinated players to self-quarantine if they come in close contact with an infected person, whether or not they are positive themselves.

From Bayern’s perspective, it doesn’t help them at all if key players have to miss out on game after game for this reason. These rules have already affected four of the club’s players, leading to the story in German media that a paid mooring was on the way for those who decided not to get stung. In this case, most fans in Germany seem more sympathetic to clubs than to well-paid players.

Since then, Kicker has reported that Jamal Musiala and Serge Gnabry have received their first vaccines. And while Kimmich and Choupo-Moting will hopefully be classified as “recovered” soon after their mandatory 14-day quarantine, being unvaccinated means that it is not possible to negatively test their early release from the hospital. ‘self-isolation, to the chagrin of their employer.

Bans on unvaccinated players have been raised in other parts of the country, which could represent a huge problem in the future for any club. The DFL reports that 90% of players and staff are vaccinated, compared to 68% of the total German population as a whole.

And so, it once again became important to understand and recognize COVID-19 terminology when discussing German football this winter. For example, “2G” does not refer to a cell phone signal, but rather to “geimpft oder genesen“(vaccinated or fully recovered). This is the rule with which virtually all Bundesliga clubs now adhere when it comes to stadium admission. In other words, if you choose not to be vaccinated, in big, you will be kicked out.

Given this measure, is it fair to have rules that are more permissive for the players than the supporters responsible for the spectacle and the atmosphere of football as a whole? In German society as a whole, sympathy for the unvaccinated is running out as discussions about mandates gain momentum among policymakers.

You will also hear “obergrenze“(upper limit) in terms of capacity because the number of spectators is reduced as in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Niedersachsen, and unfortunately,”geisterspiel“(ghost game, a game without fans) in the most affected state of Saxony, in the east. The president of the Erzgebirge Aue, a team from this region, Helge Leonhardt, called for a stop of football until ‘at the end of the year, only to be quickly informed by the DFL that this will not happen.

And don’t be surprised to hear coaches like Nagelsmann talk about “Herr Lauterbach”. Karl Lauterbach is the bespectacled and distinctive SPD party expert / epidemiologist who regularly appears on television to provide advice on issues related to COVID-19. The subject is simply everywhere, and for understandable reasons.

Other prominent figures who tested positive this week include RB Leipzig coach Jesse Marsch and captain Peter Gulacsi, Borussia Dortmund’s Thorgan Hazard and VfB Stuttgart sporting director Sven Mislintat. As if all this were not enough, there is the prosecution’s investigation into former Werder Bremen coach Markus Anfang, who allegedly circulated with a falsified vaccination certificate.

To be clear, virologists sounded the alarm a long time ago. German politicians, caught up in election fever for much of the summer and fall, did not particularly want to be the bearers of bad news. Today’s healthcare system is under strain and even the most popular sport doesn’t seem to be making an impact. soundtrack (special role) or be served a extrawurst (a common turn of phrase literally meaning a special type of sausage, but meaning special privileges.)

Before his own positive diagnosis, Marsch did say that supporters were excluded from Leipzig’s next three games: “Of course we are disappointed, but the situation in society is more important than what is happening in the stadium.”

As the emergency worsens in many parts of Germany, the spectacle will continue, but football is not immune.

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