Er schien ausgestorben, der Straßenkicker. Der selbst vom Anbruch der Dunkelheit kaum aufzuhaltende, eher Eistee statt Wasser trinkende Ballkünstler mit dem immergleichen Rhythmus: Schule, Fußball, Schlafen – und von vorn. Vom Bolzplatz bis zur Skyline. So einen wie Lukas Podolski oder wie Mehmet Scholl werde es nicht mehr geben, lautete vor einigen Jahren die schwarzmalerische Befürchtung Fußball-Deutschlands.
Verdrängt von den Fußballspieler-Fabriken, die sich Nachwuchsleistungszentren nennen und in denen die Talente immer früher gleichförmig und glatt ausgebildet werden. Doch mehr als fünf Jahre später, war der Straßenkicker bei der Heim-EM wieder präsent.
Wichtig für die Entwicklung
Abwehrchef Antonio Rüdiger kickte anfangs in den Fußballkäfigen Neuköllns, das Duo Florian Wirtz und Jamal Musiala glänzte mit Spielwitz, Individualität und Durchsetzungsvermögen – den lange geforderten Bolzplatz-Attributen. Und auch Emre Can, der gebürtige Frankfurter im EM-Kader, hatte schon als Kind auf den Bolzplätzen der Nordweststadt „gegrätscht, bis die Knie schlimm aussahen“, wie er dem „Kicker“ einst verriet.
Bolzplätze können wichtig sein für die Entwicklung junger Fußballer – und darüber hinaus. Wie steht es um die insgesamt 105 in Frankfurt, die auf 40 Stadtteile verteilt sind?
Einer, der sich mit der Bolzplatz-Landschaft in der Main-Metropole besonders gut auskennt, ist Denis Bambusek. Er ist Projektleiter der vom Sportkreis Frankfurt organisierten Bolzplatzliga. Bei dem im Jahr 2013 ins Leben gerufenen Projekt treten angemeldete Teams bestehend aus Kindern und Jugendlichen verschiedener Altersklassen in einer Saison auf den Bolzplätzen der Stadt gegeneinander an. „Von absoluten Rumpelplätzen bis Hochglanz ist alles dabei“, sagt Bambusek.
The city’s flagships are modern pitches such as those in the harbor park at the European Central Bank. But the soccer league is not only played on the city’s newly built pitches. “In Griesheim, for example, there are protected trees and tree stumps on a pitch,” says Bambusek. The solution is pragmatic: “The trees are used as barriers, the team from Griesheim knew what the pitch was like.” The soccer players based on the pitch took advantage of the home advantage.
While obstacles such as trees in the middle of the pitch are rather isolated occurrences, the problems of some pitches lie primarily in deficiencies such as worn surfaces, missing lines or boundaries and non-existent goal nets or gates.
There is a need to catch up on the maintenance of the squares, as Lena Berneburg from the responsible parks department of the city of Frankfurt stated when asked. The parks department intends to “gradually bring the existing parks in the city into a modern condition”, but the necessary annual funds are only available to a limited extent.
But it is not just the conditions of Frankfurt’s football pitches that are in need of improvement that are noticeable, but also the fact that there are access restrictions for some pitches – such as an age limit or a curfew. “There are residents who know that they have the right to call the public order office or even the police if there are children on the pitch after 7 p.m. or if the children look older than 14,” says Bambusek.
The Parks Department is aware that there is a need for people over the age of 14 to use football pitches. Whether a pitch is subject to restrictions is therefore a decision made on a case-by-case basis.
Free of clear rules
“Simply forgetting the time on the soccer field until it gets dark is a completely important experience,” says sociologist and journalist Jonas Wollenhaupt, who gave a guest lecture at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen in 2020 on the topic of “Soccer field as a socialization space.” “On the soccer field, young people experience self-organization, negotiation processes, solidarity and a feeling of freedom,” he says.
Wollenhaupt describes the football field as an “open space” and by this he means an environment free of clear rules and prescribed behavior – in contrast to school, for example, a so-called closed space.
On the soccer field, you can “test out your identities” and come into contact with “different cultures, environments and classes.” “An important prerequisite for democracy,” says Wollenhaupt. The soccer field also serves as a refuge from other social areas that may be stressful for children and young people, for example problems at school.
But from the sociologist’s point of view, it is not just political and social understanding that is particularly trained on the football pitch, but also football skills. Resistance such as uneven pitches, balls that are too big, shoes that are too small or older opponents that have to be beaten are factors in the development of the “football pitch mentality” that Oliver Bierhoff called for in 2018.
To ensure that the football field culture continues to be alive in Frankfurt, the city is planning new football fields. According to Berneburg, fields will be built on the green spaces being created in the Europaviertel and in the Schönhofviertel in Bockenheim. This could pave the way for the successor to Frankfurt football field player Emre Can.
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