The German national football team continued its charm offensive and showed a lot of closeness to the fans during a public training on the Aachen Tivoli. Three days before the European Championship qualifying match in Belarus on Saturday (8.45 p.m. in the LIVETICKER), the 20,500 spectators were in a popular mood.
“It’s very special when so many people come to watch you train. We take that with us and want to pay back the trust,” said Joshua Kimmich.
“I don’t know such an atmosphere during training from England, we don’t have any fan proximity at all”, Leroy Sane said opposite the picture.
Under the eyes of the DFB Honorary President Egidius Braun (94), shots on goal and a final match of the 22-man squad were on the programme after the warm-up programme. The opening is one of the lessons learned from the historical World Cup disaster. Since then there have been public trainings in Berlin and Wolfsburg as well as school visits in Leipzig.
In the past, a benefit game for the Egidius Braun Foundation was always scheduled for June. However, UEFA’s allocation of rights with the ten qualifying matches on the only ten available international match dates no longer permits this, explained DFB Director Oliver Bierhoff. Nevertheless, the foundation would not lose any money, “the DFB would pay for it,” Bierhoff said.