Team representing the nation - Kimmich dismisses talk of needing more white players on the DFB squad.
German soccer player Joshua Kimmich expressed dissatisfaction before the home Euro Championships over a poll indicating that one in five Germans would prefer more white players in the German soccer team (DFB).
"Anyone who has spent their life in soccer recognizes this is utter nonsense. Soccer is a shining example of how you can unite various nations, various skin tones, various religions. Therefore, it's also the case in our team. I would definitely miss a whole lot of players if they were not there. This kind of sentiment is blatantly racist and has no place in our locker room," Kimmich said in the EM quarters of the DFB team in Herzogenaurach. In the preliminary 27-man roster of national coach Julian Nagelsmann for the national team, a number of players with a migrant background are indeed included.
"We strive to bring all people together under our banner"
"Since we're headed for a home European Championship, it's already ludicrous to raise such a question, as it's all about uniting the entire nation. It's just about achieving great accomplishments together. As a team, we aim to bring all people in Germany together behind us," said the 29-year-old player for FC Bayern Munich.
Seventy-five percent of the Germans polled did not agree or strongly disagreed with the statement in the representative survey for the WDR program "Sport Inside." Moreover, two-thirds of the Germans surveyed see it as a positive development that the current national team has many soccer players with a migrant background.
The poll was commissioned by WDR for the TV documentary "Einigkeit und Recht und Vielfalt." There were a total of 1,304 randomly selected voters who were interviewed over the phone and online.
WDR sports director Karl Valks shared his thoughts on this topic: "In the course of filming the documentary 'Einigkeit und Recht und Vielfalt,' we came across the comment that there are too few 'real' white Germans on the soccer field. We opted not to present it haphazardly, but instead, we wanted to base our findings on concrete data."
Thus, the TV channel organized the survey. "We're astounded by the results, but they also show the social reality of contemporary Germany. Sports play an important role in our society, and the national team is an exceptional model for integration," Valks explained.
