SPORTS

EM 2024: The childhood dream of professional football has been shattered

Published

2 weeks ago

June 23, 2024

1oo9t

Humor

Childhood dream shattered! Yes, you. You won’t be a professional footballer anymore. Get over it!

Bitter reckoning: In this photo, our author was five years old – eleven years younger than Spain’s teenage talent Lamine Yamal. Today, the two are separated by 15 years – and one European Championship

Do you feel old when Wusiala casts a spell over the European Championship? Understandably. Few things bring your own mortality to the fore as mercilessly as a major football tournament. Time to say goodbye to a childhood dream. But don’t worry: you are not alone. Our author feels for you.

Are you over 30? Then please close Facebook for a moment (preferably forever) and listen. You have to be very strong now. Ready? No? Never mind, too late. Watch out:

You will no longer be a professional football player.

So, now it’s out. It hurts at first, of course. But hey! Chin up – you are not alone. For me too, the start of this European Championship is finally a, oh what, the Childhood dream shattered. The last time, when I was 27, I said to myself: “Now you’re at the best age for a footballer, go for it!” Today, at 31, I would be “experienced” at best, and at worst Tom Bartels and Almuth Schult would be amazed “that he can still sprint like that at that age!”

EM Generation Wusiala: The future takes over

Yes, the ravages of time are not just gnawing at me these days. With the bite force of an uncastrated Rottweiler, they are tearing apart my already faint hopes of a life as a lawn god.

This month has been an emotional rollercoaster for me. When Musiala and Wirtz, the future of German football, got their first taste of the European Championship in Munich, I almost created a TikTok account and installed Fortnite as a displacement activity. But I don’t want to kid myself anymore. The last bit of green behind my ears peeled off at some point between my first paycheck and my last shared flat party.

But what’s a decade anyway? Maybe I’ll still make it to the big football stage. After all, I wouldn’t start from scratch. In my youth, I “played at Bundesliga level”. Oh, you too? Look at how small the professional world is. Was it a knee injury for you too? Or the first cigarette? I don’t know exactly. As I get older, my memory suffers.

I now find myself thinking things like: “It’s crazy how small shin guards are these days.” NowadaysAs if the word “crass” wasn’t cringe enough. Or is cringe already cringe? I left the realm of the intentionally misunderstood long ago. I’m heading straight for the island of the “do-you-still-say-that-Soaners”, from whose shore Susanne Daubner waves happily at me.

The thought of public viewing gives me back pain

Watching this European Championship is also somehow different. In the past, there was shouting and drinking beer, now there was silence and Sodastream. If a faint sound of joy escapes at a particularly impressive Wusial trick, the friend, a coffee table coaster away, puts his index finger to his lips in warning. Pssst. His little daughter is sleeping next door. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>

But what should I do? Go out? Watch in a group? Just the thought of public viewing gives me back pain. And besides, I wouldn’t be home until late – and I have to work tomorrow, earn money, be an adult. While I’m googling the symptoms of lumbago, a 16-year-old Spanish teenager named Yamal is breaking the youth law by keeping the European Championship dream of an entire nation alive after 11 p.m. And he has to get up early the next morning too. First maths lesson.

Plan B: a Rhenish Thomas Müller

Physically, a life as a professional footballer no longer seems very desirable to me.

When I see Niclas Füllkrug, who is about the same age as me, sitting on the bench, fidgety and hungry for every minute of exercise, I see a different species. If I were threatened with substitution, I would let out a respectable dad noise when I pulled myself together, despite the lack of offspring – a distinctive sound somewhere between a badly oiled garden gate and a pronounced sigh of world-weariness.

No, if I had to start a late-night show, I’d rather be a kind of Rhinelander, Thomas Müller. Broadcasting from the sidelines and then cracking a cheeky joke into the camera? I can see myself doing that.

Bastian Schweinsteiger – legend on the ball and comb

Maybe I’ll just skip the “active” football career and go straight to being a coach. It can’t be that difficult. Let’s be honest: They only put their starting eleven together the night before using the FIFA player ratings on the Playstation. Add a few rough edges, a pinch of approachability and the vague promise of a vision – and you have the cult coach. “The Normal One” is a thing of the past. I would be “The One”! Sounds catchy, saves printer ink. Disadvantage: everyone would know better than me. It’s not going to come to that. Who was a professional footballer? They or me? Ah, right.

Then plan C: I’ll leave all this nonsense behind and earn my Bitcoins as an expert. Being a smartass is related to my current job anyway. And in my 30s, I’m still one of the young wild ones on TV who exceed expectations simply because they use a smartphone with more than one finger at a time and no longer refer to the Internet as “the net.”

Gündoğan and Musiala also whirl against Hungary – all highlights in the video

06:00 min

There are enough role models. When Bastian Schweinsteiger, who stepped out of an Ansons catalogue, pours the nation the pure sporting truth with a mint-fresh Colgate smile and doesn’t even allow himself to be rushed by little things like the “Tagesschau” in his statements, I am fascinated. Not just by the razor-sharp analysis, but by that hair. By its color, an expensive Gorch Fock gray that makes Clooney look old and whose roots go deeper than the anchor of an oil tanker in the Mariana Trench. A legend, the man. With the ball and with the comb.

To new shores

But it’s not all the same. Football pro, that’s what it said in my Diddl friends book. Not a bench warmer, not a trainer, not an expert. A hero in socks, that was the plan. When I was twelve, I promised that to everyone who wanted to hear it (or didn’t want to hear it). Although: I also wanted to be a knight back then. So: I’ll learn to ride by the time I’m 40. I promise.

#Subjects

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SPORTS

LeBron James Set to Make History with Third Olympic Appearance

Published

10 mins ago

July 7, 2024

1oo9t

He competed in his first Olympics at age 19. He returned twice in his 20s. Now, just months shy of his 40th birthday, he’s about to get another taste.

LeBron James has nothing left to prove. If he lines up with the Americans once again, it’s simply because he wants to.

James is set to become the first U.S. men’s basketball player to compete in the Olympics in three decades.

The United States camp is in motion in Nevada, the starting point where they are ultimately looking for a fifth gold medal in a row.

“I’m still playing at a high level,” said James, who has two gold medals and a bronze to his name. “I still enjoy playing basketball and I have a great relationship with Team USA. It was important for me to join the guys this summer.”

James can notably reconnect with two of his former coaches, Erik Spoelstra and Tyronn Lue. He won an NBA title with each of them at the helm.

“It’s amazing how intense he is in practice,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said. “I asked Ty and ‘Spo’ if that’s normal, and they said he’s like that every drill, every day.” READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>

James won bronze in 2004 in Athens and also in 2006 at the World Championship (now the World Cup) in Japan.

Since then, the Americans have always won gold when he has donned their jersey, with a record of 36-0.

“Our only goal is to win gold,” James said.

The Americans will face Canada in a pre-season match on Wednesday.

2024-07-07 14:22:00
#Basketball #LeBron #James #motivated #eve #fourth #appearance #Olympic #Games

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SPORTS

Pont-Saint-Esprit Town Hall Organizes Paralympic Games Day for Students

Published

19 mins ago

July 7, 2024

1oo9t

As part of its “Land of Games Paris 2024” label, the Community and Sports Life office of the Pont-Saint-Esprit town hall organized a day around the Paralympic Games last Monday at Clos Bon-Aure.

Thus, all the CM1 and CM2 pupils in the town, i.e. 250 children, were able to practice Paralympic sports thanks to the equipment provided by the Gard handisport committee: goalball, judo and long race with guide for visually impaired people, wheelchair basketball and sprint for motor impaired people. They were also able to talk with the Spiripontain motorcycle rider Matthieu Lefebvre, who himself has a disability.

The idea of this day, a few weeks before the Olympic and Paralympic Games, was to raise awareness among students about disabilities. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>

2024-07-07 17:06:13
#PONTSAINTESPRIT #day #discover #Paralympic #Games

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SPORTS

Wimbledon Round of 16 Recap: Alcaraz Advancing and Sinner Dominating in Men’s Singles

Published

28 mins ago

July 7, 2024

1oo9t

Wimbledon: Round of 16 men – Alcaraz only struggles briefly against Humbert – Sinner marches on – Sport – SRF Skip to content

Sport

Grand Slam tournaments

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Carlos Alcaraz (ATP 3) has to take a detour against Ugo Humbert (ATP 16), but is in the quarterfinals after a 6:3, 6:4, 1:6, 7:5.
Jannik Sinner (ATP 1) leaves Ben Shelton (ATP 14) no chance.
On the outdoor courts at Wimbledon, some matches have to be interrupted again due to the rain.

Playful and with fast legs: Carlos Alcaraz thrilled the crowd on Centre Court when he reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon – but then found himself in danger at times. The 21-year-old defending champion was the more complete professional in the almost three-hour duel with the aggressive Frenchman Ugo Humbert and won 6:3, 6:4, 1:6, 7:5.

A loss of tension in the third set cost Alcaraz an even quicker win, but Humbert then played well and sensed his chance of a surprise. After that, however, the Spaniard improved again and made it to the quarter-finals. There he will face Tommy Paul (USA) or Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP).

The world number one Jannik Sinner stopped the winning streak of American tennis pro Ben Shelton at Wimbledon. The 22-year-old Italian won in the round of 16 with 6:2, 6:4, 7:6 (11:9). In the fight for a place in the round of the best four, Sinner will face former US Open winner Daniil Medvedev from Russia or Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

Livestream on srf.ch/sport, 07.07.2024, 14:30 ; sam/agencies

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Grand Slam tournaments

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2024-07-07 15:43:00
#Wimbledon #Men #Alcaraz #struggles #briefly #Humbert #Sinner #marches #Sport

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