Dhe publisher Voland & Quist, a source of literary diversity for years, has implemented a charming idea this year. He has started a series called “Icons” in which authors write about football players who are not necessarily among the greatest in the industry, but who represent a special story.
In contrast to many usual star biographies, the careers and successes of kickers are not retold; instead, there is a free play of literary forces. So no banter characterized by linguistic tactics, but rather lustful exchanges with appropriate words.
The kick-off in the spring was the flippant, scary text “Trautmann. In Ruins – a Declaration of Love” by Veit Pätzug about a group of young people from Dresden who, in 1989, were rooting for the dynamo idol Andreas Trautmann in the declining GDR and its top league.
This was followed by “Dziękuję Poldi! A bookless site inspection”, an approach to Lukas Podolski, who is followed by the goalkeeper of the German national team and avowed 1. FC Köln fan Andreas Merkel to his final stop in the Polish first league at Górnik Zabrze. The early highlight of the work, with all sorts of self-referential things about writing, reading and life, is the encounter between Podolski and “Poldi,” as the narrator calls himself: first on the soccer field for target practice, then for an interview. In conversation, the 130-time German national player was “surprisingly uncool” and rather embarrassing at the league game the day after because of his one-man celebration.
Narrator Poldi, aka author Merkel, knows how to describe his journey into the Poldiverse with playful humor and sweet and sour irony. His note on the first division match between Zabrze and Leczna sums up at least nine out of ten football games: “Something very strenuous with ball struggles, shouting, men’s stress.”
The latest release in the “Icons” series – “Anne Hahn dreams Christian Beck” – is all about the title character and his (female) followers. In real life, a center forward for 1. FC Magdeburg between 2013 and 2021, Beck appears twice in the booklet: firstly as a figure in the dreams of the author Hahn, and secondly in the actual story as a hostage in a deep sleep, guarded by three nurses . In order to release Magdeburg’s “city saint of modern times”, as the club icon Beck is called, they are calling for an FCM museum in which the club’s successes are honored. The narrative gives female fans a voice, and a happy ending is included.
The next volume in the series (“Sören Lerby. The Benefactor” by Jan Böttcher) will revolve around the FC Bayern professional in the mid-1980s, whose fascination a young Werder Bremen fan falls for. You can be excited again.
Andreas Merkel: “Dziękuję Poldi! A bookless site visit”, Anne Hahn: “Anne Hahn dreams Christian Beck”, 104 pages each, 12 euros, Verlag Voland & Quist 2023.
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