Sebastian Eder, an editor in the “Society & Style” section, writes in his column about a special relationship with football. He loves going to the stadium, especially to see SV Darmstadt 98 at the Böllenfalltor. The “Sportschau” evokes a feeling of home in him – a legacy of his father, who was a football reporter.
But during the game itself, it gets tricky: Eder can’t remember anything beyond the final score. Player names, tactics like the back four or back five – it all slips away. “I simply have no football brain,” he writes. Alone in front of the TV, he can barely stand the boredom, unless it’s a game of the century.
His stadium memories, on the other hand, are all the more vivid. As a child, he was appointed flag keeper in the F-Block by the legend “Kutten-Kalli” – a serious task whose purpose was never explained to him. Years later, he saw Frankfurt fans burn stolen Darmstadt flags. Once, a fan his own age punched him in the stomach for no reason; today they greet each other in the stadium.
The contrast between boredom and passion became clear to Eder during the 2024 DFB-Pokal final between Bayer Leverkusen and 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Tens of thousands of Palatines traveled to Berlin, sang, put on an impressive choreography – and then began the most boring game Eder had ever seen. Lautern lost. “For many fathers and sons from the Palatinate, it was probably still the trip of a lifetime,” he writes.
Eder calls his relationship with football “comfort binge” – like repeatedly watching old series because you feel at ease in the familiar world. He can’t recount games from 1997, but he has countless memories tied to football. For instance, the encounter with a horde of violent away fans at the edge of the woods, standing behind a police line. One shouted: “Go pump some iron, you cunts.” Darmstadt was playing? No idea. But Eder still remembers walking on, laughing.
Source: www.faz.net
