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In a controversial interview appearing in the recent edition of German magazine Der Spiegel, the agent for injured Germany captain Michael Ballack, Michael Becker, was quoted as saying players on the team were “a bunch of gays” and that one of the newest players was “half gay”.
Needless-to-say, the comments generated debate and anger throughout Germany over the past week.
The Spoiler makes an interesting point that the German word for ”half gay” is Uranodioning- which means to have passionate feelings for women, but tender feelings for men.
A caption appearing under the photo in the Guardian newspaper of German national coach Joachim Löw arriving home from the World Cup suggested that the elegant style of his players has been put down to some of them being gay.
Here is an excerpt from Der Spiegel:
He (Becker) talked a lot about people who were envious of his client, because they were supposedly mediocre, ugly, untalented, bureaucratic, provincial, unmanly or gay. He told me some unbelievable stories, which I wrote down on my pad of paper. Becker didn’t seem to mind, perhaps because he assumed that they would never make it into print anyway, or that they were already common knowledge. A few days later, on the sidelines of a farewell match for footballer Bernd Schneider at Bayer Leverkusen, Becker told a group of agents and journalists in the Bayer clubhouse that there was a former player on the national team who was about to go public with the names of “the gay combo.” I expected my fellow journalists to be all ears, but they seemed relatively blasé about Becker’s remark. It seemed that every sports journalist was already familiar with the alleged homosexual conspiracy swirling around German coach Joachim Löw’s team. The rumors accompanied the team to South Africa. They are apparently part of the package.
After lunch, Becker showed me his office, his house and his garden, where he has been trying for some time, albeit unsuccessfully, to build a frog pond. He told me, beaming, how Elton John had sung the German national anthem at Ballack’s wedding. When I asked him whether he thought that a player whose nomination to the team had come as something of a surprise was gay, Becker said: “He’s half-gay.” When he said that, I realized that all of this was somehow synonymous with something Becker could no longer understand. It was something that was light, non-ideological, dance-like, beautiful, joyful, and easily confusing for someone whose life had revolved around pecking orders and hierarchies until then.
Sparky Collins, Gambling911.com
