Stefan Bell knows what he is talking about when he talks about the flood disaster in the Ahr valley. He comes from the region. On Saturday, he will play a charity match with Mainz 05.
In Koblenz’s Oberwerth stadium, Mainz will meet 1. FC Kaiserslautern. The questions about personal memories of the last game against each other are almost a bit embarrassing for Stefan Bell, given the “serious background” of the charity match. “It’s an important sign when the biggest clubs in Rhineland-Palatinate get involved and use their reach, even if it won’t solve all the problems,” says the 30-year-old.
In August 2019, the centre-back suffered a serious ankle injury during Mainz’s cup exit at the Betzenberg (0:2), which put him out of action for a year and left him fearing for his Bundesliga career. The 200th Bundesliga game Bell made last Saturday against Union Berlin seemed to become a barely attainable mark in between.
Only seven ahead of Bell
The fact that he played all his Bundesliga games for the same club underlines Bell’s exceptional position in the professional circuit. Of the current professionals, only Bayern’s Thomas Müller, who has now reached 390, Gladbach’s Patrick Herrmann (305), Dortmund’s Marcel Schmelzer (258), Wolfsburg’s Maximilian Arnold (258), Freiburg’s Christian Günter (242), Gladbach’s Yann Sommer (236) and club colleague Tony Jantschke (233) have achieved such a feat.
Bell comes from Wehr, a local community in the district of Ahrweiler. “Everyone from our village knows people affected by the flood, my siblings and parents were often on duty there. My brother happened to be in a house that was flooded,” says Bell, whose hometown is only a few kilometres from the Ahr valley. Now that the state aid has started, the professional footballer is particularly interested in doing something for the amateur clubs in the region. The sports fields are often located near the river and are completely devastated.
A real affair of the heart
FV Vilja Wehr, of which Bell has been the first chairman for years, was fortunately spared this because of its geographical location. Nevertheless, there are repercussions there as well. Because of the partially destroyed schools, some of the youth footballers have lessons in the morning, the others in the afternoon. Since some teachers are also acting as coaches, the entire sporting activity in the region is disrupted.
“For the clubs, juggling training times is one of the everyday, banal problems,” says the Bundesliga professional. The clubs have an important local function, “they hold the villages together”. Supporting this is a real affair of the heart for Bell.
