Unforgivable: The German women's football team sings the European Championship anthem with Wolfgang Petry
The 73-year-old pop star sings his hit "Falling in love, lost, forgotten, forgiven" with the women's national team. Should this have been handled differently?
For the opening match of the DFB women's team against Poland on Friday, the "anthem" that the women's football team recorded for the tournament with pop star Wolfgang Petry will be played for the first time: a new version of his most famous hit "Verlieben, verloren, vergessen, verzeih'n" (To fall in love, lost, forgotten, forgive") as the official team song of the 2025 European Championship .
That's not particularly cool, of course. But it does put you in a good mood in a strange way. Why is that? For striker Laura Freigang, it's a "fever dream of the best kind."
Women's football has enjoyed great popularity around the world for several years now. This is because it has evolved enormously. And also because many people find it more authentic, more "down-to-earth," and therefore more likeable than the men's version, which is completely permeated by capitalism. In their media statements, the women often recall the good old days, when their male counterparts, more independent of agents, simply said what they thought.
The men haven't been singing for a long time. In 1974, the national team players sang "Football Is Our Life" together for the first time at the World Cup. Four years later, "Buenos Dias Argentina," which Udo Jürgens recorded with the team in chorus, was unforgettable. They recorded albums in the run-up to the World Cup until 1994. And yes, that stopped exactly when big money started pouring into the small football circus. When football became commercial and pop, the beautiful singing stopped.
So we hope that the women will continue singing for a long time to come, that their advisors won't discourage them, and we also hope that they might one day sing a completely new and original song from our time, and not with the 73-year-old Petry, who has been retired from music since 2006. For example, with Nina Chuba or Shirin David.
Berliner-zeitung
