After the TV man was kicked out of Sky
Sophia Thomalla promises Dahlmann one (up to ten) beers
By Ben Redelings
4/2/2022 8:51 am
In the spring of 2021, Sky will throw him out. Now the former football reporter Jörg Dahlmann has reviewed this difficult time in a book. He speaks very frankly about his eventful career and private strokes of fate. But he has now made his peace with Sophia Thomalla.
Sophia Thomalla’s offer is: “The next time I meet, I’ll give him a beer. Or ten. I’m emancipated. I can do it.” They are the closing words of an impressive text that the “actress, moderator, advertising face and investor and also feminist” (original sound Thomalla) wrote for the Book “Always straight out” by ex-soccer reporter Jörg Dahlmann wrote. She is still a little surprised that she wrote this article at all, because to this day she actually does not see “the need for clarification”. But that’s exactly what many social media users felt very differently in December 2020.
At that time, Dahlmann’s comment about her former friend Loris Karius, second goalkeeper at Union Berlin these days (“It has the advantage that he can cuddle at home with his Sophia Thomalla. But for such a cuddle night with Sophia, I would also rely on the bank”), first for a veritable shitstorm and then for a serious media thunderstorm. The Sky commentator was accused of “sexism”. It was the definitive beginning of the end of the longtime TV reporter’s career.
In his book, Jörg Dahlmann now allows these intense weeks, which culminated in his saying about the Japanese Sei Muroya at the beginning of March 2021 – “It would have been the first goal for him in Germany. The last one he scored in the country of sushi” – and to led to his immediate dismissal from Sky. And in such a relentless way that some readers will put the book aside when they hear the lines about the so-called “Luschis” of the TV industry. Because Jörg Dahlmann doesn’t mince his words – unlike what is now usually the case – when he describes the “story of a ridiculous and embarrassing expulsion”. Not every reader will be able and willing to understand that in his deep hurt, which can still be felt in every line, and in his lack of understanding of the devastating developments, he may lose his balance here and there and overshoot the mark.
“Went through the best times”
But anyone who follows the career of Jörg Dahlmann, which he describes in his book in an extremely entertaining way, and the time of carelessness without social media, which he was still able to experience as a football reporter, will develop a form of understanding for Dahlmann’s deep disappointment while reading about his expulsion. It is this nostalgic memory of the past that his friend, the sports reporter Belá Réthy, describes in the closing sentence of his contribution: “Don’t worry, my dear Jörg. We were part of the best times.”
And those times make up a large part of the book. And that’s a good thing, because Dahlmann tells the stories of her life in a highly amusing and anecdotal way for all football fans born up to 1980 at the latest. All well-known TV faces and football stars come to life again. Reinhold Beckmann says about his former colleague: “Jörg simply loved discovering and describing the odd. That was his thing. He could do it like no other.” It is exactly like that. Dahlmann liked to be close and right in the middle – and had a feeling for the human stories of football. Like this beautiful gem from the final day of the 1985 DFB Cup between Bayer Uerdingen and FC Bayern Munich.
“Horst Feilzer, called ‘Feile’, had the habit of always chewing gum, a good deal of superstition was involved. Shortly before the game hectic. He had forgotten his gum! I gave him one of mine. And he achieved that 1: 1 after Dieter Hoeneß had put Bayern in the lead. The chewing gum made history. Because when he celebrated the goal, his beloved elastic partner fell out of his mouth. He searched and searched on the tartan track, finally found it, cleaned the good piece and put it back in his mouth. The lucky charm lasted until the 90th minute. Uerdingen won 2-1.”
“Always straight forward” isn’t for everyone
Ben Redelings is a passionate “chronicler of football madness” and a supporter of the glorious VfL Bochum. The bestselling author and comedian lives in the Ruhr area and maintains his legendary anecdote treasure chest. For ntv.de he writes down the most exciting and funniest stories on Mondays and Saturdays. More information about Ben Redelings, his current dates and his book with the best columns (“Between Puff and Barcelona”) can be found on his page www.scudetto.de.
When you read the words of Johannes B. Kerner in the book, you can guess that the invitation to Sophia Thomalla’s beer would certainly have pleased the sociable Jörg Dahlmann: “We experienced spectacular major sporting events together, which we were allowed to report on (live). But we also went out partying, played drinking games, pulled pranks and caught up on all the ‘nonsense’ that we had missed during our studies.”
Reading the “wild time as a football reporter” once again impressively illustrates that Jörg Dahlmann’s career should not be tied to its (unfortunate) end. However, Jörg Dahlmann is certainly not insignificantly responsible for the fact that this risk does exist. Because “always straight forward” is not for everyone. But Dahlmann knows that best after the experiences of the last two years at the latest.