For anyone interested in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s relationship with soccer, there is nothing more instructive than flicking through the archive of photographs showing the chancellor and the national team throughout her nine years in power.
At the 2006 World Cup, when Merkel had only been in office for a year, the setup was still fairly formal — stiffly lining up on the stairs at the team’s hotel lobby, the players wearing long-sleeve jumpers and tracksuit bottoms.
In 2010, after a Euro 2012 qualifying match against Turkey which Germany won 3-0, Merkel got bolder and allowed herself to be photographed in the team’s changing room — reportedly to the irritation of the German soccer federation (DFB) — shaking the hand of bare-chested goalscorer Mesut Ozil.
Photo: AFP
At this World Cup, the chancellor’s visit to the post-match changing room has become a ritual. An extraordinary photograph taken after Sunday’s victory over Argentina has Merkel framed by a crowd of sweaty, cheering players.
DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach said there had been “kisses on cheeks,” striker Lukas Podolski called her a “Muttivation” for the players (a pun on her nickname Mutti, “Mummy”), and manager Oliver Bierhoff described her as the squad’s mascot.
The message is clear — she has by now been fully absorbed into the team.
In Germany, this public symbiosis between sport and politics is entirely Merkel’s invention. The first chancellor of the post-war era, Konrad Adenauer, did not bother to turn up to watch the Mannschaft win their first trophy, in 1954 in Bern, Switzerland.
Former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt watched the 1974 win inside the stadium, but from the safe distance of the VIP stands.
Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl pioneered the post-match changing-room visit, but was only photographed in 1990 by accident. Asked what the amply proportioned chancellor’s visit after the team’s Euro 1996 win had been like, former midfielder Mehmet Scholl said on Monday: “Tight it was.”
Merkel has taken the politicization of soccer to a new level. A few days ahead of a formal celebration of her 60th birthday in Berlin tomorrow — and amid new rumors that she will step down before the end of her third term — Germany’s World Cup victory has already celebrated the political values that the chancellor is keen to expound, such as pragmatism, ambition and humility.
As the newspaper Taz wrote: “The players of today are politically correct. It’s hard to say what their politics may be — but that’s another thing they have in common with Ms Merkel.”
There is no doubt that her photogenic intervention on Sunday will work to her advantage domestically. When she visited the team following their opening win against Portugal last month, her party’s popularity rose by 2 percent in the opinion polls.
“The chancellor’s visit to the Germany team during the World Cup shows that she takes people and their interests seriously,” said pollster Manfred Gullner of the Forsa Institute.
She may also hope that association with a team that is generally much liked outside Germany could boost her international profile. After all, Germany have proved that they can be successful and dominant, yet liked abroad, something that has not always applied to the chancellor.
Of course, as the routine booing of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff throughout the World Cup has shown, pegging one’s political career too closely to the fate of a soccer team can also backfire.
On Sunday night, a not small number of Germans on social media felt put off by Merkel’s not-so-humble role in the celebrations.
As one fan in a Berlin bar put it: “What has that woman done to deserve to be up there?”
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