Football | No desire for international matches: I would rather have Hajduk than Bundesjürgen!

In his book “I am Beara,” Boris Dežulović tells the story of Hajduk Split in five literary texts. Photo: imago/Nel Pavletić I am not one of the fans of national football teams and I note with horror the interruption of the national leagues by the Nations League for three weeks. “BILD” and similar specialist newspapers of popular thin-board drilling are running through Germany’s forests and fields with red cheeks because former RB Klopp recently put his Kukident smile on German football and all real patriots celebrated him like a Christ.

After a World Cup for the toilet in the Kingdom of Trump, Jürgen has to fix it because the German flag has never hung slacker on the mast. Thanks to the tooth fairy (and Master Propper), everything will definitely be different in Tumbtatade Germany. What to do? Let's make this terrible time meaningful. Get a few good books and join in when the black, red and gold party patriots maraud through the bars. Reading is thinking with another brain, a very clever Argentine once said.

Frank Willmann looks at the football between Leipzig, Łódź and Ljubljana.

They don't necessarily have to be books written by me; I'm very modest here. I recommend you the wonderful book: “I am Beara” by Boris Dežulović about his life with Hajduk Split. Like all clubs from Eastern Europe, Hajduk lives from its past, as top European football is now dominated by brands that no longer have anything to do with the football clubs they once were. Hajduk is left behind, but nevertheless enjoys the eternal love of his fans in Dalmatia. No club in Croatia or in the entire Western Balkans has more spectators, and nowhere else is the population so intertwined with a football club.

The highlight of Hajduk history, in 1944 all players and almost all employees of the club refused to be integrated into the Italian league by the Italian fascists. Overnight, Hajduk Split, then one of Europe's best football teams, fled and joined the Yugoslav partisans on the island of Vis. From then on they played as the official team of the Yugoslav partisans in half the world and only returned to Yugoslavia after the liberation from fascism to make the hearts of the fans jump.

We find out this and much more in five great texts in which Dežulović uses elements of sports reportage in narrative form to create a brilliant book with lots of humor and attitude. Dežulović emphasizes the club's anti-fascist history and denounces the nationalism of today's fan scene. He takes us to big games, lovesickly portrays club legends and rolls through his socialization as a Hajduk fan. Always political, always subtle and literary, incredibly close to the people and their passion, he traces the glorious madness that lives within us football lovers.

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