Today the draw for the 2024 European Championships in Germany will take place in Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie – and with it a new chapter of exciting European Championship history begins. Reason enough for some of the most incredible, strange and surprising stories in the history of the European Championship!
Since the 1982 World Cup in Spain, French nurse Clément Tomaszewski had traveled to every tournament in which his national team took part. And always at his side since the 1998 World Cup in his own country – his rooster Balthazar. But at the final of the European Championship 2016 in Paris, the living lucky charm was denied entry. Stadium ban for the sad rooster and his owner. And bad luck for the Équipe Tricolore. They lost the final against Portugal.
By the way: Hahn Balthazar couldn’t be there once. At the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea he had to stay at home because of bird flu. Tomaszewski did get a double at the animal market in Seoul – but things backfired. As the reigning world champions, France was eliminated in the preliminary round without scoring a single goal.
Why Shkodran is now called Shkodran
Who doesn’t remember the story of little Shkodran? Back before the German team’s first game at the 2016 European Championship in France, a journalist and father-to-be declared somewhat loudly that he wanted to name his son after scoring the first German goal in the opening game against Ukraine. Funnily enough, in a clear moment he told his colleagues that Mustafi of all people would certainly not achieve that. But that’s exactly what finally happened in the 19th minute of this encounter. When Mustafi heard the story, he said with a grin: “I would buy little Shkodran an ice cream when I get back to Germany and he has the same name as me.” Unfortunately, it is not known whether this ever happened.
But there is another reason why the 2016 European Championship remains in the long-term memory of all fans – because it was characterized by boring football for long stretches. And so the TV makers often preferred to look at the stands instead of the green grass. And in fact: The fans there often presented themselves more imaginatively than the players on the pitch. What particularly caught the eye during one game were five tough guys with red burnt faces and a certain beer-heavy look in their eyes. Undoubtedly they had to be men from the island. They proudly held up a banner: “Please don’t film us. Our women think we’re fishing in West Wales.” In the end, they received more attention in this game than all 22 players on the pitch combined.
Too much humanity after the EM exit
And this story also made headlines – because nothing like this had ever happened before in the history of the European Championship. Immediately after the bitter preliminary round exit at the 2008 European Championship, French national coach Raymond Domenech stood in front of the TV cameras after the bitter defeat against Italy and answered the question about his professional future with these memorable sentences: “I only have one plan, and that is to marry Estelle. I’m asking for her hand in marriage today.”
His girlfriend at the time, Estelle Denis, didn’t know what happened to her – because she was sitting live in a TV studio as her supposedly future husband Raymond spoke. A day later, Domenech regretted his unusual action again: “I showed a touch of humanity at a moment when I should have remained professional.” The two of them probably never actually got married.
England’s young star Wayne Rooney was delighted at the 2004 European Championships in Portugal. There, at the age of 18 years, seven months and 24 days, he scored 1-0 for England in the preliminary round game against Switzerland in the 23rd minute – and was now the youngest European Championship goalscorer of all time. But only for an incredible four days. Then the Swiss Johan Vonlanthen scored a goal in the group game against France and was now the new record holder at 18 years, four months and 20 days. By the way: This record has stood ever since.
DJ Ötzi dances Rehakles
The following story comes from the unbelievable but true section. Our national goalkeeper at the 1988 European Championship in our own country, Eike Immel, was once sorted out of the Bundeswehr due to a “vision defect”. However, team boss Beckenbauer declared him suitable for national service on the green grass. And so Immel was in the box for all of the German team’s games in the summer of 1988 – and did a good job.
DJ Ötzi became famous almost overnight with his hit “Anton aus Tirol”. And he reacted just as quickly after the 2004 European Championship. The miracle of Portugal had barely taken place at the European Championships when the Austrian singer had already dedicated the song “Tanz den Rehakles” to the successful Greek coach Otto Rehhagel after the surprising title win at the European Football Championship. DJ Ötzi sang lively to Sirtaki rhythms: “Come dance with me to Rehakles. Dance around the Acropolis. Come dance with me to Rehakles. If you are a real Greek.”
Saalbau Witten inspires the heroes of 1980
By the way: The favorite song of the German national soccer team at the victorious European Championships in 1980 was the hit song “You just have to pull the nipple through the tab” by Mike Krüger. All day long the national players whistled and sang the song, which was at number one in the charts in Germany for 26 weeks. Incidentally, Mike Krüger recorded the LP, which sold 600,000 copies, on two evenings at the Saalbau in Witten.
On the second evening, however, his guest Karl Dall had to take over most of the show – because Krüger could only croak quietly due to an infection. However, that didn’t detract from the song’s success. Quite the opposite. At the latest after the national team’s victory at the European Championships, the song was finally on everyone’s lips. It will be interesting to see which song might accompany our current DFB team to victory.