The defeat of FC Bayern at Aston Villa has given rise to a lot of English. About a recommendable journey.
The nice thing about playing football in England is that there are a few constants that make every stay at least entertaining. Completely regardless of how the football game turns out later or ultimately turned out.
“Would you recommend a trip to Birmingham to your friends?” asked a woman with an umbrella this morning, who’s main occupation was to ask travelers about their trip to Birmingham.
And when it took a while for an answer, the woman laughed. She had probably encountered this polite hesitation before. “For the football?” she suggested as a possible answer, and she was very pleased with the eager nodding. Yes, of course, people should definitely come to Birmingham for the football!
In Birmingham, for example, there is the third division team Birmingham City, which spent more money on a player this summer (Jay Stansfield, 17.8 million euros) than Borussia Mönchengladbach and Werder Bremen combined in the entire transfer window. And whose so-called “co-owner” is the best American football player in history, Tom Brady.
And of course, in Birmingham, in addition to the canals known from “Peaky Blinders”, there is also the Premier League club Aston Villa, the pride of the city – according to Aston Villa fans. “All of my heroes are Villans,” these fans also claim, by the way, and in terms of marketing, that’s another level above ‘Mia san mia’ or ‘Echte Liebe’. All that’s missing is an ‘i’ in ‘Villans’ and it would say what it’s supposed to be understood as: All my heroes are villains.
“Love” from the security staff, fans in the best Ulreich tradition
And on one evening, the Villans turned out to be exactly those villains, which was a wonderful advertisement for this football city of Birmingham. One that you would definitely recommend to your friends!
Starting with the dark red brick buildings to the left and right of Villa Park, on whose facades, in a style typical of England, graffiti by Ollie Watkins or Unai Emery or simply the Champions League trophy could be seen. Then there were the silver hot dog vans with quaint names like “Smokey Joe’s”, the far too narrow wooden doors to the stands or the far too crooked singing of the fan chants.
And of course, there are the very nice security guards there, too, who basically greet you with “love” or “darling” and face fans who, in the best Sven Ulreich manner, prefer to shout “wanker” in the direction of the opponent a little too often.
Oh yes, and there was a football match taking place too. A football match, by the way, that also served all sorts of English clichés. The “Shoot” calls from the Villa fans when a Villa player got the ball in their own half; the T-shirts in single-digit temperatures; the grinding of teeth when one of their own boys won a tackle on the sidelines against the German giants. And of course, bearded Prince William, who clearly had difficulty keeping his emotions in check.
Bayern are still fallible, but they knew that. Before the game at Villa Park, Vincent Kompany had confidently said that “his boys” were used to these “nights” in the Champions League and that such an atmosphere should not bother them.
But the great thing about football is that you can never really get used to those nights, whether on the pitch or off it. There is always something unpredictable, even magical, about them. A team can press the whole time and then concede a goal that the scorer might only score like that once in ten attempts.
And then no one sits down and everyone roars. And when he leaves the stadium and walks past the FC Bayern bus, the shirt rides up, revealing his round belly, because his arms are pointing skywards. “Bayern Munich,” he sings. “We done you again!”