Arjen Robben - foto -Paulblank - Wikipedia
With whistles and boos, Arjen Robben the world class Dutch footballer was humiliated by some of his own FC Bayern München ‘fans’ yesterday evening. Speaking as someone who is familiar with German football, Dutch national coach Bert van Marwijk spoke for his team and called the incident an outrage and a shame, and Robben’s team-mates nearly all have advised him to leave the club.
Ostensibly he was supposed to play on both sides in a ‘contractual-obligation’ match between the Dutch national side and Bayern – a game which had been agreed upon long before it was known that both Holland and Germany would be pooled in the same group in the EURO 2012 championships which commence in just a couple of weeks.
Robben played only for the Dutch national team as a substitute in the last 15 minutes what became a 3-2 victory for Bayern.
The patent absurdity of blaming one player for a cumulative loss of an entire team is unfortunate; however this ‘Robben-bashing’ has a history.
The die was cast earlier this year when so-called ‘great’ or more like ‘big-mouth’ Franz Beckenbauer criticised the then out-of-form Robben, calling him ‘selfish’ after he lost his starting position on the team.
The 28-year-old Robben has had a lot of injury time at all his professional clubs and after playing a major part in helping Bayern München to a domestic Bundesliga double, Champions League final in 2010 and coming 2nd in the World Cup in South Africa with the Dutch national team, he missed much of the 2010-11 seasons through injury.
Beckenbauer is honorary president of FC Bayern München and his words obviously carry a lot of weight. For him to single out one player out of the whole team – someone who is still relatively new and a non-German as ‘selfish’ is just plain divisive and stupid.
Any professional footballer knows that when his freedom to shoot the ball from a distance or to take chances is being limited and criticized as ‘selfish’ as was done by this edict from above - an honorary President – then it is time to move on.
By comparison, the amount of chances that Mario Gomez has missed would be in the thousands – and nothing is said of this because many times Robben did pass to him with very little result.
I am not saying that Beckenbauer should criticize Mario Gomez, because he is also someone that needs positive support and not some historical ogre from the past breathing down his neck . He like Robben have difficult jobs and are under a lot of pressure to perform and do not need any so-called negative advice as Beckenbauer’s.
Robben is a great player and FC Bayern München is a great team with a long and respected history. While Robben is not faultless and he shares part of the blame for the recent Champions League loss to Chelsea, to use him as a scapegoat, as is being done is inexcusable.
This whole event is regrettable because Bayern is known as a club that does look after its players and treats them like a large family. Last season it did just that when it went out of its way to support Frank Ribery who was at the time embroiled in a rather sordid affair involving some underage sexually promiscuous women.
Robben has some very good years left in him and it is not like he has no-where to go. Before signing a new contract earlier this month, Robben had been linked with Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City, and his own former club Chelsea. [ Personally I think he would fit best at Arsenal.]
Robben should draw the only correct conclusion and leave Bayern München – thank you Franz Beckanbauer!
I have written before about Beckenbauer and his stupidity – http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/06/19/franz-beckenbauer-should-stick-to-what-he-does-best-and-otherwise-shut-up/
And yes, it will probably happen sooner rather than later – http://www.crunchsports.com/category/Soccer/Chelsea-FC-and-Man-City-on-alert-Arjen-Robben-urged-to-quit-Bayern-Munich-201205230025/
While Bayern know what time it is also – http://sport.topnewstoday.org/sport/article/2331124/
If you read German – http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/community/forum/thema-des-tages/Arjen-Robben-Wechsel-nicht-ausgeschlossen-id20276171/20276266–id20276266.html
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Robben greeted by continuous boos and jeers and humiliated by some of his own so-called FC Bayern München “fans” yesterday evening – dye was cast and responsibility for a logical exit lies entirely with so-called ‘great’ but in fact irritatingly daft Franz Beckenbauer who always misses the chance to just shut up! – by OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog contributor Filip van der Plas from OTA Berlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany License. If you use this article or parts of it, please refer to http://www.ota-berlin.de.
Tags: Beckenbauer who always misses the chance to just shut up., Robben greeted by continuous boos and jeers yesterday and humiliated, Robben linked to Arsenal, Robben should leave Bayern \, Robben should leave FC Bayern München, Robben should quit FC Bayern München, robben to arsenal, Robben would fit in well at Arsenal., so-called 'great' Franz Beckenbauer, Thank you Franz Beckanbauer.
Did not see the game but the noise surrounding it sounds like a proper storm in a tea cup, typical Bayern. They are pretty adept at creating hype out of nothing. Beckenbauer is the Johan Cruyff of German football – though he was never that good, he was more successful in terms of trophies, and has milked the television age for every penny. It is a mechanism sports people do very well out of since it is the big money spinner. In our day and age the fans, so-called and otherwise, the media and the players need all kinds of interaction to keep the show on the road. It is a strange bastard of a capitalist model but those partaking in it do extremely well out of it. The old loyal fan and the old-school player, who is loyal to the club that made him, no longer exist (even if some fans see themselves as such). Football is going American to its detriment and Beckenbauer and Hoeness behave like team owners in baseball, basketball and football (the helmeted version).