Wim's column written for
La Repubblica

"E Tedeschi, Totti, Toldo, Trappatoni"

For a while, when I was growing up, I was fascinated by the art and science of graphology. To recognise somebody's character by his or her handwriting! Wow! I read all the books about it that I could find. Like a maniac, I analysed everybody's handwriting. None of my friends and nobody in the family was safe from me. I saw through them all like they were open books. At least, that's what I thought. It was so exciting. Of course, it was just a fad, and then I forgot all about it.

At some later point in my life, I enjoyed the idea of watching people dance and read their character and their way of being through their movements. That was not an acknowledged science, but so much more fun. And more precise, in my book. I thought people never revealed so much of themselves than when they were dancing. You could see their whole biography right in front of you, dancing their lives and their stories! I am not talking about social dances, like waltzes or Tango. I am talking about dancing all by yourself, at a party or a disco, sort of free-form. I still enjoy this strictly empirical approach to psychology a lot. I fancy that I have taken it pretty far, close to being a science.

My new thing is soccer. Well, I am an ardent soccer fan since my childhood, but I never considered it to be anything else then a great competitive sport. It's only now that I start studying it as another para-scientific psychological insight. It's not so much about recognising individuals. It's about deciphering national characters and attitudes. I am pretty convinced of my new theory. Watch any team at this European championship play, watch their system, their structure, their behaviour on and off the field, and you know a lot about that country, the people and their present state of mind.

I guess this approach is wide open for prejudices and all sorts of preconceived notions. So you have to let go of all your opinions and just watch the game, phenomenologically, so to speak. Don't be judgemental at all. Imagine you don't even know who's playing. (That's particularly difficult if your own team is on the field and the stakes are high.) I succeeded better by watching reruns on Eurosport the next day, when I already knew the results. When there was no more tension, no other concern than the game itself, it struck me that you could watch the teams with the same perspective as watching people dance. It was just as revealing. It was almost like spending time in each country, eating the food, hearing the language and seeing the sights.

I will refrain from analysing any other country than my own. Well, I could, but I'd rather keep all those new insights for myself. Not that I had anything bad to say about anybody, on the contrary. I appreciated the Turks more than ever, I was in awe of the Dutch, I was blown away by the Portuguese, I was delighted by the Danish and impressed by the Slovenians. The Italians confirmed all their virtues, the French just brought out the best of them. Etc. But what was wrong with the Germans? (Or the English, as far as I'm concerned.) Why were they so much beside themselves?

Looking at the German games was like looking deeply into my country's soul, at this particular time in history, a good ten years after their reunification. It meant watching a very confused nation. Actually, that word is already out of place. It was more like watching a non-nation. It never felt like these players "represented" anything like "a nation", they never for a moment seemed to consider being a "national team". Only: THEY were not to blame. The absence of that notion was not their fault. How can you represent "German virtues", if the entire country is in doubts what those could be. The bitter truth is: Both ingredients of that category are up for grabs, "German" as well as "virtues". These poor players ran around like everybody else in my country, trying to come to terms with the meaning of it all.

You can't represent something if you don't know what it is. If you play for a city's team, you know what you're doing: You get paid for it. You can switch to another club the next season. You have a contract. If you play for a country, you can't switch. You don't even get paid for it all that much. It's an honour! Why?

You see, if you ask this question, you're already in deep trouble. And in exactly that sad troubled state I saw the German players run around the field, like headless chicken. They had no purpose. Playing for Germany was obviously not a purpose. And again I maintain: That exactly was NOT their fault. Traditionally the German soccer is not built on imagination and ingenuity, but on those so very "German" virtues of strength, will-power and discipline. But you just can't play up to those virtues, if their common denomination, the little word "German" in front of them, isn't in place, is somehow not working. It starts with the national anthem. I LOVE watching the teams stand on the field and sing the anthem. That's not just baloney, that's truly part of those championship game! You can already feel the spirit of a team at that moment, you can see what they're up to. Well, nobody looks as bored during the national anthem as the Germans.

Again, you can't blame them. There's no other anthem that's so confusing. You are not even supposed to sing it! You are supposed to sing the third verse only! (That is, of course, if you know the words.) The famous first verse "Deutschland, Deutschland, über alles…" has been discredited too much. Historically, of course, that is correct. There are good reasons for not singing those verses. BUT: Is there a good reason for singing the third one, if it is nothing but a replacement, an excuse, a "fig leaf", at least unconsciously? And isn't that anthem itself still a reminder of other "virtues" that were also considered "German" once?

You see, "representing German virtues" starts on a sour note for these players, from the beginning. Mentally, they're in a losing game. Even if "nationality" isn't a big issue any more for many other teams, and even if many other players from other nations might not care less for their anthems or the meaning of the words they're singing, the Germans are particularly disenchanted. Sure, that famous third verse has been around for many years. But as the country was reunited and glued together again, a sense of what "Germany" could mean from there on was never established, never sought, never questioned. The East Germans lost their (imposed) anthem, the West German substitute became a substitute for all Germans, and therefor even more devoid of any sense than before, when NOT singing the first verses was somehow also linked to the fact that the country was devided.

Don't get me wrong: I am not complaining about a lack of nationalism in Germany, or anywhere else. I am just stating a lack of "belonging". If you belong to a club, you can play great soccer. If you belong to a nation or a young country, just as well. But if you just don't belong to something that you can define and that represents a value, what do you do? You don't score, that's what you do. The Germans marked one single goal in the Euro 2000! One goal only! And that was a shot from the distance, by Mehmet Scholl. I like this player a lot. His first name is Turkish? So what, that's not the point here. The point is that he seemed to be the only player that at least for one moment was inspired. Soccer is all about inspiration. The German team as a whole lacked inspiration. They couldn't draw it from the fact that they represented Germany. They couldn't draw it from anything else, either.

The German public and the German press expected nothing, to begin with. That's exactly my point: They were all suffering from the same lack of confidence. What's the use in going out fighting, if the folks at home don't even give you a chance? That absence of "spirit" is a very poignant definition of the state of the German mind. And that is the dance I saw. A sad dispirited dance. Those 11 players on the field danced a German inventory.

Having scored only one goal and assured only one sad little point, that did hurt the German moral even more than losing against the arch-enemy, in soccer terms that is, the English. It has to be said that the Germans won so often against them - for almost three decades! - while not always being the better, but rather the luckier team, that it will do them good, I hope, to have lost the one time they almost did play better than their opponents. So, grudgingly I had to acknowledge that this loss was probably the best thing that could happen to German soccer right now. And to the German soul.

You can't play soccer well without a purpose. If playing in the national team isn't a good purpose any more, then soccer might achieve what politics and politicians couldn't do after the war and after reunification: Have the Germans come to terms with the fact that a renewed definition of Germany is needed. They tried so eagerly not to confront that issue, tried so hard to overplay their poor self-image. Now they have no choice. They will have to define "German virtues" again. In order to play good soccer again. And to sing better.

Hey, wait a minute, I might be wrong. The Germans might have found another solution, another way out of their dilemma, one more time! It looks like they're considering to get an Italian coach! Well, don't get me wrong, Trappatoni is a fine coach. I liked him a lot when he was working at Bayern Munich. But it will probably be easier for all the German players to learn Italian, than for him to learn German. We might just need to borrow a couple of Italian players, too, and give them German passports. How about Totti and Toldo? They were great!

Now let's look at the positive side. There's an advantage to the German dilemma: It sets us free to become good Europeans, maybe the best. And it set me free, for instance, to finally be able to see all the games after the qualifying round without any preference or prejudice. I could watch all the teams dance. After the glorious Portuguese were gone, the Azurris were my favourite dancers. I wish they could have won the final! Their grace and style deserved it.

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