Meet the Player, Meet the Man: Dirk
In the 12th of our increasingly Dirty Dozen like series “Meet the Player, Meet the Man”, we present the one who refuses to take money from wimmin.
no money also got honey
Name / Nickname: Dirk. Many nicknames, because everybody pronounces my name differently: Dirik, Derrick, Dick, …
Highest level of football played: I only played for fun, never in a team.
Which Football team do you support: KSC! KSC! KSC! Karlsruher Sport Club, a small (and not very successful team in south Germany). It is my home town team, so I am supporting them a long time.
The most memorable moment supporting your team: That was definitely in 1993, the first time KSC was participating in the UEFA Cup. After a 3:1 disaster against FC Valencia (heading the spanish league at that time) in Valencia, KSC scored an unbelievable 7:0 in the return match. Out of the seven goals, Edgar “Euro-Eddy” Schmitt was scoring 4 goals, it was crazy. I was so lucky I had tickets, because everybody went berserk trying to get tickets for the UEFA Cup matches. And it was definitely the match of my life. In an interview, Euro-Eddy said that once an old man hugged and kissed him on the cheek saying: “Thank you, that I’d live to see that!”
Favourite non-FAFI player: Of course Euro-Eddy, but also Rainer Schütterle, Gunther Metz and Michael Wittwer. (Btw, the latter’s hobby is growing orchids. How lovely)!
Who do you imagine yourself to be on a good day / bad day: Jens Nowotny / Rambo
How do you celebrate scoring a goal: Goals? Which goals? I have to admit, I rarely score goals. If so, I am so baffled, I don’t know what to do.
Best goal you’ve scored during a FAFI game: See question above.
Worst miss seen in a FAFI sanctioned game: Everytime, see question above.
Funniest thing you’ve seen on a football pitch: GC Zurich – FC Basel: Fans throwing Döner Kebab and chairs on the pitch and setting the grandstand on fire later on.
Which position would the manager of your favourite team play you? Substitute bench?
When did you realise that you weren’t good enough to play for your favourite team: Probably as a toddler…
What music would you listen to before you step out into the field? SLAAAAAAAAAAYEEEER!!! 🙂
What do you think of Singapore (best and worst elements): Food! It is so good, but you need to do a lot of workout to get rid of the excessive calories…
Your favourite football-related book: Well, I guess, there is only one answer: “Fever Pitch” by Nick Hornby. (Although I have to admit, I like his “High Fidelity” better…). And this one (Editor’s note: click on the link to view the YouTube vid. It’s safe for work. For the Bundesliga fans, Tor!: The Story of German Football
is pretty good, too).
Paid sex. Discuss in 20 words of less: Usually I don’t accept money, hahaha!
Your motto on the pitch: Fight till Death
Any Other comments: Hey, we should have FIOFAFI t-shirts!
Ferment: Indefatigable Fun For Adults 
Nice to see other people supporting their local teams not glory hunting!
That makes every Singaporean who supports an English or European club a glory hunter! Hardly any Singaporean supports an S-League club. Would you? 🙂
True enough, but you could support an ‘S’ league club and a glory hunting EPL team like Blackburn 😉
seriously though if local people supported the local teams then the standard may improve
The real solution is for a couple of good-sized Singapore-based clubs to play in a regional inter-cities league, including at least 2 or 3 of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, but ASEAN countries (or at least their football associations) are too small-minded, parochial and short-sighted to make that a reality any time soon.
There is an ASEAN Football Federation that organizes an ASEAN Club Championship, ASEAN’s equivalent of the Champions League (!!???), but there’s nothing like a league of 16 to 20 professionally-run clubs spread over a sufficiently wide catchment area playing each other home and away over the course of the season. That’s why the domestic leagues in Europe remain so successful.
The alternative would be for a Singapore-based club to play in the A-League (the way the Singapore Slingers play in the Australian National Basketball League). I’m not sure the Australians would want us though :). And you can expect FIFA and the AFC to be obstructive.
I’d work on a proposal, if I thought anyone would listen 🙂 .
The “support your local team” sentiment is deceptively quaint, and exceedingly seductive in its simplicity.
Football is a Universal game that is universally loved, watched, enjoyed, and played. Football, at its best, speaks for something bigger than us. In this respect, “localism” goes counter to the meaning of The Beautiful Game. In this sense, this “support your local team” fervour is a non-starter.
Imagine the inherent contradiction embedded in Bilbao: on the one hand, a football team comprising exclusively of local players; on the other, the Guggenheim with its promise of universality.
Don’t misunderstand me: there is a lot that is wrong with football as a sport. I just don’t think that these ills are productively tackled in this way.
@Andy: I don’t see how “local people” supporting “local teams” will improve standards. Can you elaborate?
On a more serious note, I’m surprised that no one has mentioned Dirk’s less than (ahem) conventional taste in music.
Slayer?
I suppose Dirk’s got the hair for it, but Slayer?
Though he does make up for it with High Fidelity.
The glory hunters are those that suddenly started supporting Chelsea when they became a rich club and started winning. The glory hunters are those who loved Leeds United when they were winning matches in Europe and the new Manchester City fans that will start appearing shortly.
And he imagines himself to be Rambo on a bad day? Was that meant to be football-related? Or perhaps he meant Sylvester Stallone (and his body double, Paul Cooper of Ipswich Town) in Escape to Victory – the acting was bad enough.
How can violence on the terraces be funny?
Isn’t trash metal very popular in Germany?
As long as no one got seriously hurt or killed I suppose.
Isn’t national stereotyping very popular in Singapore? 🙂
BTW, I think the funny bit arises out of the throwing of Döner Kebabs.
See Tom, it’s one thing to say “Item A is popular is Country B” (which is a statistical issue), and other thing to say “People from Country B like Item A”, which is stereotyping.
It’s a fine line you’re splitting, Jiv.
First, Country B is by definition populated by people from or in Country B so the difference is a little tenuous. Second, this elevation of “objective” status to statistics is worrying.
On a general point, using statistics as a justification in lieu of reasoned argument is even more worrying.
… not as worrying as someone openly professing to like Slayer though.
Tom, i agree with your statement and i for one am a supporter of Football hence i always want the team who plays the best football to win. However the definition of best football is obviously open to interpretation, however my view is the attitude to the excitement of the game, so a boring defensive 1-0 is not in the spirit of the game but a 4-3 win is. I think football is an attacking sport which is reflected in the old positions of yesteryear when they had attacking formations with positions like, Centre forward, inside left and inside right plus wingers. 5 players looking to attack. In this sense i like to watch Man Utd & Arsenal in the UK and the Liverpool of old, and obviously the foreign teams like Real Madrid or Barcelona.
In terms of improve the standard, i was making the assumption that as a supporter people may actually go and watch the game, pay admission, but some food/drinks, shirts etc. and therefore bring more money into the clubs. Which in turn would allow them to pay higher wages(sadly the only driver for some players) and attract better foreign talent to the league which would hopefully have a knock on effect by helping local players to improve through training and playing with better players etc. Nothing wrong with supporting foreign clubs etc. but the atmosphere of a live crowd is often what makes the game. Accept at Tranmere of course were the 6500 fans don’t make much of an atmosphere 😉
See, that’s why language is important.
I’m making no argument greater than to blandly pose as a fact the popularity (which is admittedly a relative term) of a form of music within a certain geographical region.
It’s either statistically true or it isn’t. I’m not sure what further argument or justification you saw in what I said. Even more worrying is reading more into a statement than what is actually stated 😉 .
Would it be wrong to say “football is popular in Singapore”? 🙂
Redseason, I did read what you wrote. Both one-liner at the beginning and one liner at the end. Don’t get me wrong, the large ‘glory hunting’ clubs are very happy to take your money wherever you live to build their next big stadium or to spend on marketing to get more money. But how can you not see that local people and local money would help local teams? (in your words);
‘I don’t see how “local people” supporting “local teams” will improve standards’.
Nothing wrong with Slayer, classic albums like Reign in Blood, South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss proudly sit in my CD collection.
But seriously, surely Metallica and / or Megadeath trash Slayer?
BTW Jiv, it’s “thrash” metal not “trash”.
A typo, especially since I looked up Slayer on Wikipedia. Or perhaps a Freudian slip? But like I said earlier, enough psychobabble for now.
@ Llion: Thanks! Reign in Blood, South of Heaven are CLASSICS, wether you like this kind of music or not. Especially with Reign in Blood Slayer made history.
@ Redseason: I am not sure, if you can compare Metallica or Megadeth with Slayer. But admittedly, I like Metallica at lot as well (especially the stuff until 1988 and the latest one!)
@Rajiv: Hahaha! Trash metal (and metal music in general) was extremely popular worldwide I’d say, but this is 20 years back… However, it is getting more popular again nowadays! Just look which (old) bands were releasing a new album in 2008! Amazing!
Regarding the fun part: of course violence during football matches isn’t funny. I know what I am talking about, I saw some football matches in Germany, which got pretty rough (in the audience) and I was always very happy to escape unscarred. But the Döner part was funny, and the fire didn’t harm anyone…
i missed the “h” as well! 🙂 THRASH METAL
i missed the “h” as well! 🙂 THRASH METAL
See, that’s why language is important.
That’s spelling Tom.
“that’s why language is important” ad infinitum. No more Freud though.
But misspelt words hinders proper functioning of language.
Or, “Spelling is a subset of Language”
Typos are human, incomprehension malign.
But not necessarily of semantics. Sometimes, interpretation is a choice.
So is language.
So is language, Jiv.
Or, “Humanity: constituted by the web of language”.
Think you’re having your own discussion here, though. 🙂
Apart from psychobabble, or language … what about Dirk?
I’ve already had to move one discussion to a new post 🙂 .
OK OK OK. Back to Dirk: when Valencia was hammered 7-0, guess who was their manager?
Guus Hiddink!