In November 2003 Bayern Munich lost a league match at Schalke 04. Afterwards the goalkeeper Oliver Kahn said: Eier, wir brauchen Eier. Eggs, we need eggs. Eier is slang for testicles, and here for courage and fight. The line names no one. Kahn said wir, we. The line is probably his most famous saying. In 2016 the broadcaster Sky Sport News HD used it in a promotional spot built on legendary football sayings. In November 2022 Kahn, by then Bayern’s chief executive, alluded to it again before Germany played Spain at the World Cup.
sports
Gold Without Friendship
At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Boris Becker and Michael Stich won the gold medal in men’s doubles. In the final they beat Wayne Ferreira and Piet Norval. The two Germans did not get along. In Barcelona they did not sit at the same table even once. Becker said it simply: Wir mögen uns eben nicht. We just don’t like each other. After both had gone out in the singles, they had the same goal, and they reached it.
The Handshake Before the Penalties
Germany played Argentina in the World Cup quarterfinal on 30 June 2006 in Berlin. The match went to penalties. Jens Lehmann was in goal. Oliver Kahn, Germany’s number one for years, had been moved to the bench by the national coach Jürgen Klinsmann just before the tournament. The two goalkeepers were rivals. Before the shootout, Kahn went over to Lehmann, crouched beside him and shook his hand. In a ZDF documentary Kahn later described the rivalry: Es wird hart gekämpft, es wird mit allen Bandagen gekämpft. The fight is hard, and every means is used. About the moment he said: Du siehst ihn – und hast eigentlich nur ein Bedürfnis: ihm jetzt dafür nur das Beste zu wünschen. You see him, and you really have only one wish: to wish him only the best for this.
The Captain as the Team’s Envoy
On 2 September 2024 the national coach Julian Nagelsmann explained why Joshua Kimmich would captain the German national team. He described the role this way: Er ist ein Abgesandter der Mannschaft und platziert die Meinung des Teams bei uns. He is an envoy of the team and brings the team’s opinion to us. He also gave a reason for the choice: Wenn Josh etwas anders sieht, dann spricht er das offen, ehrlich und direkt an. When Josh sees something differently, he says so openly, honestly and directly. According to Nagelsmann, Kimmich had set a benchmark at the European Championship on home soil. Kimmich, Antonio Rüdiger and Kai Havertz formed the team council, the Mannschaftsrat, together with four other senior players.
The Keepers of the Club
der Wart — the keeper, the warden. Duden: a person who is responsible for something specific or supervises it. The word comes from wahren, to keep or to guard. On its own it is old-fashioned. It lives on in compounds, and every German club has several of them.
der Kassenwart — the keeper of the cash box, the club treasurer
der Zeugwart — the keeper of the kit
der Platzwart — the keeper of the grounds
der Gerätewart — the keeper of the equipment
der Turnwart — the keeper of gymnastics, who organizes training and looks after the apparatus
der Jugendwart — the person in charge of the youth section
der Torwart — the keeper of the goal, the goalkeeper
One Defender, One Opponent
On 7 July 1974 in Munich, West Germany beat the Netherlands 2:1 in the World Cup final. Berti Vogts had been told to attack Johan Cruyff only 30 meters in front of his own goal. Vogts received a yellow card. Shortly afterwards he ran to the sideline and told the coach, Helmut Schön: Ich mach’ das jetzt auf meine Art. I will do it my way now. The German Football Association explains what that meant: konsequente Manndeckung, strict man-marking. Schön agreed, unwillingly. Under man-marking, each defender marks one opponent rather than a zone.
A License That Requires Sustainability
In December 2021 the clubs of the German Football League decided to make sustainability a condition of the license to play. TSG Hoffenheim described the two Bundesliga divisions as the first major professional football leagues with mandatory sustainability criteria in their licensing rules.
The criteria were adopted on 30 May 2022. They cover club management and organization, environment and resources, and stakeholders. For the license for the 2023/24 season, clubs had to meet 39 minimum criteria of the first category.
Three Quarters of the Club
Section 33 of the German Civil Code sets the default rule for changing the statutes of a registered club. A club’s own statutes may provide otherwise. A change needs three quarters of the votes cast. A change of the club’s purpose needs the consent of all members. Members who are absent must give their consent in text form, for example by email.
On 1 June 2017, the members of VfB Stuttgart voted on moving the professional football department into a separate company. This required a three-quarter majority. 9,099 members voted, and 84.2 percent of the valid votes said yes. Daimler then paid 41.5 million euros for 11.75 percent of the new company.
The Season Is Fixed in June
On 27 June 2025, the German Football League published the dates and pairings of all 34 matchdays of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season. The season began on 22 August. From June, every club and every fan knew on which weekend each match would take place. The exact kickoff times are set only during the season, and fans have complained about the times they are given. In 2022, after 1. FC Union Berlin’s away match in Freiburg was set for 5:30 p.m. on a Sunday, a Union fan told the Berliner Kurier: Wir alle müssen am nächsten Tag arbeiten. We all have to work the next day.
“Go Out and Play Football”
Geht’s raus und spielt’s Fußball. Go out and play football. It is one of the best-known sentences of Franz Beckenbauer. Sky Sport lists it among his famous quotes as his tactical instruction as a coach.
FC Bayern records a longer version and places it in the dressing room before the World Cup final of July 1990: Geht’s raus, habt Spaß und spielt’s Fußball. Go out, have fun and play football. Germany won the final against Argentina, 1 to 0. The exact wording differs between the sources.