Sunday, January 02, 2022
Messi, Klopp, Neuer – and more
Professional sport threatens the corona surrender
The winter break is the undoing of many football clubs. As short as it is, many athletes will be canceled for the New Year. You have contracted the coronavirus. But this does not only apply to football for a long time.
FC Bayern slowed down, Lionel Messi in isolation, Jürgen Klopp not on the line, Werder Bremen caught at home: The corona noose tightened threateningly at the beginning of the year – professional sport with the billion dollar industry at the top is more prominent than ever uncertain weeks.
Bayern Munich was hit particularly hard. The start of training after the Christmas vacation had to be postponed from Sunday to Monday because Manuel Neuer, Kingsley Coman, Corentin Tolisso and Omar Richards and assistant coach Dino Toppmöller are infected. The quintet is in domestic isolation, “they are all fine,” said the record champions.
But the preparation of the table leaders for the start of the second half of the season against Borussia Mönchengladbach is severely disrupted. Because Monday will also begin “due to the adaptation of the test and hygiene concept to the current pandemic situation” with extensive PCR tests for “all players, coaches and staff members”, as the club announced. Bayern announced on Thursday that the measures would be tightened again due to the Omikron variant.
Prevention also comes too late for Messi. The 34-year-old superstar of the French top club Paris St. Germain is, according to the club, like his teammates Juan Bernat, Sergio Rico and Nathan Bitumazala, who also tested positive. Messi and his three colleagues are expected to miss the Paris Cup game at Vannes OC on Monday as well as the Ligue 1 opener next Sunday at Olympique Lyon.
Werder cancels training camp
The clubs, which are already badly financially stricken, are the main victims. Second division Werder had to cancel their training camp in Spain due to five new cases. Immediately before the planned departure, striker Niclas Füllkrug also tested positive on Sunday, as did Manuel Mbom, Milos Veljkovic and Marco Friedl and rehab trainer Marcel Abanoz – the club then canceled the trip to Murcia. Preparations for the rest of the season are now taking place in Bremen.
According to Werder’s managing director Frank Baumann, there was no other choice. “There is a risk that there will be more positive cases in the next few days,” Baumann is quoted as saying in the association’s announcement. Werder’s league competitors Fortuna Düsseldorf and Schalke 04 had previously canceled their planned training camp.
Football not alone
Klopp also had to cancel. The team manager of Liverpool FC went into quarantine on suspicion of a positive test result and lacked the word in the top game of the badly affected Premier League on Sunday at Chelsea. According to the club, the 54-year-old has “mild symptoms”.
But not only football is affected. The game planned for Sunday in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) between the Iserlohn Roosters and the Straubing Tigers was canceled due to cases at Iserlohn. All affected players and employees are in quarantine. Christian Hommel, the sporting director of the Roosters, described the cancellation as a “no alternative decision”. This sentence should be heard more often in the coming weeks.