The football in Germany interview

In part 6 of my global interview series we travel to 3 time World Cup winners Germany. Markus Klöschen writes a web log called the Bundesliga Blog.

Markus’s blog, as you might have guessed, covers the teams, players and matches from the Bundesliga. My thanks for joining in.

FC: How do you think the German Bundesliga compares to other European leagues today as opposed to 10 years ago?

MK: Well, 10 years ago the Bundesliga was well known as one of the best soccer leagues in Europe. These days we have only one or two teams which are able to win a cup in Europe. But we are on the right track with young new players in several clubs which will help us to have better chances in the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

FC: What club in Germany has recently impressed you the most?

MK: Most impressive was FSV Mainz 05, a very small soccer club with a young team and a young coach, who played in Mainz himself and has a lot of fans in Mainz and Germany. They got into the qualification for UEFA Cup because they are known for the fair fans, players and all around. Because of their size, Mainz 05 gets a lot of sympathy in Germany these days. Of course, FC Bayern München is impressive and dominating the Bundesliga for the last couple of years.

FC: You're going to host the World Cup next year, what are your thoughts about the tournament?

MK: All Germany is awaiting this great event. Everybody is in the Championship-fever here in Germany. The ticket assignment caused some trouble as there are not enough tickets for the "normal" fan, since a lot of tickets are reserved for sponsors and the press. But we are looking forward to watching the matches on big video-walls in our cities to celebrate this big event as good as possible. And you will be impressed by the German soccer team next year since we will be one of the top teams in 2006 :)

FC: Do you think financial laws, such as in Italy's Serie A where clubs must remain at a certain financial level, should also exist in Germany, how about allover the EU?

MK: In Germany we have some kind of financial law for soccer clubs to get the license for playing in the Bundesliga (or even lower soccer leagues). But they don't have to have a positive amount of money at the bank but have to have good plans for the next years so the licensing group agrees to it and give them the license. We had some discussions the last years since one club (BVB Dortmund) was in deep financial trouble caused by the old management. But they got the license since they sold some players, and have a sold out stadiums for every Bundesliga match. Our clubs have credits of 700.000.000 Euros but a lot of managers and so on believe that the DFL (Deutsche Fussball Liga - German Soccer League) is exemplary in these things within UEFA. I think it is very important to stay at a certain financial level, while it is not necessary to have money in the bank, but with a positive tendency.

FC: What's the German youth football system like, what's good, what needs work?

Well, I think we have the same problems as every country out there. The young are not that interested in soccer these days as we where 20 years ago. I play soccer in a small club and we still have problems having one team for each age. Never the less, the German soccer clubs do a lot for the youth. The results are now playing in the national team, IE, Sebastian Schweinsteiger or Lukas Podolski. For a long time we missed the trend but in the last years we’re working with the youngest and the results of the good work will be shown at the world championship in 2006. The soccer clubs have to continue the hard work and our kids need to go out playing soccer instead of playing PlayStation or similar.

FC: Who are your top 5 German footballers at the moment? How about ever? How about naming a few rising stars in Germany that we've probably never head of?

MK: According to kicker.de - THE German soccer magazine - the best 5 players are: Ivan Klasnic, Miroslav Klose, Torsten Frings (all Werder Bremen), Christian Fiedler (Herta BSC) and Owen Hargreaves (Bayern München) but this is just a count based on goals, mistakes and some strange ideas.

My favorite German players are:
Oliver Kahn (Keeper of Bayern München)
Michael Ballack (Bayern München)
Miroslav Klose (Part of the magic K&K-Team with Ivan Klasnic at Werder Bremen, most successful)
Patrick Owomoyela (Werder Bremen)
Kevin Kuranyi (FC Schalke 04)

Best players ever:
The "kaiser" Franz Beckenbauer (FIFA World Cup 70/74)
Gerd Müller (FIFA World Cup 74)
Rudi Völler (90/94)
Jürgen Klinsmann (90-98, today coach of our national team)
Lothar Matthäus (World Cup 82-98)
Michael Ballack (2002 until now)

Rising stars, as we’ve already seen playing on the Confederations Cup: Sebastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski and Mike Hanke or Philip Lahm. What we need is a new goal-keeper since Oliver Kahn will be too old for 2010. Our youngest well known talent is Nuri Sahin, who did his first match for Dortmund who turned 16 in August.

The team which hopes to be a rising star is FC Schalke 04. They have some new players which are playing for the national team and are known as the toughest competition for FC Bayern this season.

See a list of all the interviews published so far

Please email if you'd like to conduct an interview (over email) or if you know the name of a weblog in your country.