The recent labelling of Gelsenkirchen as an undesirable place by certain visiting England supporters on Twitter, post their inaugural game with Serbia, is not being well received by parts of the German press.
An article titled “English football fans, let’s discuss Gelsenkirchen,” in Rheinische Post by Martin Kessler suggests that it’s typical for English fans to find issues with everything and everyone. Despite agreeing that the town is battling economic difficulties, he points out that the likes of Sheffield and Birmingham are also still dealing with repercussions of their past industrial decline. Kessler even feels obligated to mention Blackpool, Bolton and Bradford, interpreting them as no more aesthetic than Gelsenkirchen.
Irene Habich, a local of the city, has also voiced her thoughts on RND’s website discussing the significant sites and artistic attractions of Gelsenkirchen, a major city in the Ruhr region. She does acknowledge that the city’s central station region is less than picturesque, a complaint commonly articulated by English football enthusiasts on social platforms. They wished for a more visually pleasing backdrop for their potential encounter with Serbian supporters, apparently.
Meanwhile, Marca, a Spanish publication, were disheartened when Milan Tarot, a Serbian psychic and supposed descendant of Nostradamus, predicted the winner of Euro 2024.
He prophesied that all leading national teams will perform poorly, except for England, who he reckons will clinch victory. He visualised a grand celebration in England and Harry Kane scoring more than 10 goals.
Although his methods, as outlined by Emerging Europe, may seem unconventional, such as telling a client in search of his dreams to repeat “I am Tarzan, lord of the jungle,” six times and breaking two eggs over his head, it’s plausible that Kane is attempting this in his hotel suite at this moment.
Jude Bellingham experienced a dramatic shift in the perception of the English press from hero to nearly zero, following his match on Friday. His performance against Serbia drew comparisons to legends like Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods at the height of their career and even Maradona and Zinedine Zidane. However, the perception swiftly changed with the Daily Mail rating him a paltry 4.5, likening his fall to that from Roy of the Rovers to Doncaster Rovers.
Harry Kane, commenting on England’s troublesome Euro 2024 performance, highlighted that the difficulty lay both in handling the ball and playing without it.
An interesting statistic from OptaJoe points out that over the past 28 years, all major tournament matches have seen a Manchester United player featured for England up until the Denmark match.
Christoph Kramer, the ex-German international, couldn’t help but launch a double-edged insult, criticising both England’s performance and that of Union Berlin. Besides, Danish supporters seized the opportunity to mock England’s fans on Thursday evening with chants of “Champions of Europe – you’ll never sing that!”
Regarding James McClean’s criticism of Declan Rice’s performance, despite the backlash, McClean didn’t retract his words. He expected more than mere sideways and backward passes from a player worth £100 million.