Gladbach’s Matthias Ginter celebrated a gala evening for a good cause with sports and local celebrities in his home town of Freiburg. Also present was a relaxed ex-Bundestrainer in a chatting mood.
Christian Günter, Lucas Höler, Yannik Keitel and Dominique Heintz from SC Freiburg, cyclist Simon Geschke, javelin-throwing couple Christina and Boris Obergföll as well as Joachim Löw were among the guests who strolled down the red carpet at the Historisches Kaufhaus in Freiburg on Monday evening and posed for photos. The Gladbach professional footballer Matthias Ginter and his wife Christina, who both come from the Freiburg region and have set up a foundation here with which they support disadvantaged children, had invited them.
Gladbach’s victory against Fürth was to be as little of a topic that evening as Freiburg’s first home defeat against Frankfurt. “After all, we’re all here for a good cause “, said Ginter, “we’ve had the experience in the past few years that people have donated a lot and done good, so we’re very happy about that. “
Löw wanted to “leave the stage to Hansi” and has “logically made enquiries “
One of the donors was once again the ex-bundestag coach, who lives in Freiburg and had recently withdrawn somewhat from the public eye, but was in high spirits at the charity gala. “After such a long time, I needed a bit of distance, that was also important for me,” Löw explained. He also wanted to consciously “leave the stage to Hansi and the new beginning”. The 61-year-old found his farewell in Wolfsburg at the match against Liechtenstein “super nice”, “especially with the team. You could tell that something has grown together with many players over the years.”
More than results, successes and lost games, he will remember “the obstacles we overcame and the joy we had together – the interpersonal things will stay in my heart forever “ In the meantime, he says, he is motivated to work again. “Of course I’ll stay in football, I can’t do anything else,” Löw said with a smile, “logically there are requests, next year we’ll see, I’ll let it come to me.” However, he ruled out applying for the post of DFB president: “There are others who can do it better – cobbler, stick to your last. “
Löw is against compulsory vaccination
It was not left out that the topic of vaccination and vaccine-averse professionals was discussed at the 2G event. Löw finds the rising number of Corona infections “frightening “, but he is not in favour of compulsory vaccination: “I am in favour of vaccination, which also shows a certain responsibility for our society. It is urgently necessary if we want to get out of this pandemic. But it’s the decision of every individual in our country, which has to be respected.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by host Ginter, who has seen his foundation work hampered by the pandemic. Nevertheless, he and his wife were able to help. “In the last two years, countless projects have been added that were not even on the radar screen before. New problems were also added, there were many children at home, they no longer had leisure time opportunities and there was more domestic violence,” reports Christina Ginter, Chairperson of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. “We took on many projects that fit into the Corona era.” The foundation prize awarded on Monday evening to author Tobias Budde for his children’s book “It’s okay to be sad “, also fits in with this.
SC Freiburg captain Christian Günter, who together with his wife Katrin is one of the foundation ambassadors, finds it impressive that his national team colleague and his wife “did a lot, even if they couldn’t be there, because it’s the children who are not doing so well who need this support”. He announced that he would “leave one or two euros here”. Two weeks after the meeting in evening dress, there will be a reunion in the jersey when the Sport-Club is the guest in Mönchengladbach.