There’s not many decent football blogs out there (although the Guardian’s been fairly good during the World Cup). And the websites of most professional footballers are usually a wasteland of cliches whereby ‘you’re only as good as your next game,’ and you easily become ‘gutted for the lads,’ at the slightest mishap.
Into this vacuum steps Moritz Volz. Who he, you ask? He’s a German U21 international right back (even though he’s 23) and best of all, he’s one of our own. Fulham, bought ‘220’ as he’s known (think voltage in Europe) from Arsenal a couple of years back and he’s been great for us – a whole-hearted player if ever I saw one (and I saw him launch into the crowd at Pompey a couple of seasons ago to try and avoid giving up a throw-in). But the diary on his website is an absolute classic.
He’s German and he knows it, i.e. he knows all the stereotypes people have about Germans and he has the ability to poke fun at himself, while truly assimilatuing into English life – he’s just passed his maths A-level (sounds as if he’s doing four in all) for instance. He has a phrase book on his site where he translates phrases such as, “Wo ist der pool? Ich will meine handtuecher hinlegen/Which way to the pool? I would like to put my towel down,” and “Kannst du meine aermel abschneiden/Please can you cut the sleeves off my denim jacket.”
It’s hard to know when he’s being ironic and when he’s not, but this is the man that went into a Niketown in Londona and bought a pair of custom-made football boots with “Volzy.com” on one and “The Hoff” on the other, in honour of German’s obession with David Hassehoff, which he says “should be fun in close-ups in the Premiership next season.” He even has part of his site devoted to the Hoff.
When meeting Roger Milla (famous Cameroonian footballer from years gone by) at Cologne airport, he gets him to sign his Panini sticker album and has his pictute taken with him, captioning it “Me with Rog the Ledge.”
So much other funny stuff as he makes his way around Germany following the World Cup. You can read the lot here. Can’t link to individual entries, you’ll just have to page through, but it’s worth it. A fan’s diary written by a very professional footballer.