:: reports
Members of the Metzelder FC are crazy enough to come up with lots of crazy activities. Be it the annual Borussia Dortmund summer training camp or some Regionalliga club's early Sunday morning training session in the mud and rain, we are present, 24/7. Here you find the tales of our mischievous activities.
This time, we look back on our farewell party, spill the beans about Christoph's new football action figurine as well as the contents of his suitcase for Madrid.
Farewell barbecue
or: Senden is not Ottmarsbocholt!
It was the beginning of March and, therefore, much too early for an April Fool's joke, but Christoph, our honorary member and raison d'être of our fan club, had indeed decided not to renew his contract with Borussia Dortmund and instead look for a new challenge elsewhere.
For obvious reasons, we were not amused about Christoph's plans, especially since the BVB was not doing well at that time, to say the least, and we considered fighting against relegation challenge enough. Apparently, not even the "21 reasons to stay with the BVB", which we had handed over to Christoph during our last fan club meeting, were convincing enough to make him stay.
But how should one say good-bye to a player with whom one has gone through good times and bad, sun and rain, championships and relegation battles, injuries and comebacks and this for seven years? This was no easy task and eventually it was Christoph who – flatly refusing to leave Dortmund without a proper good bye to his fan club – put the preparations for the farewell party into our hands, not quite realising what he had brought onto himself.
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With spring on the calendar but summer weather in the air, we decided to have a barbecue in the woods above the Ruhr valley in Witten, with splendid views on the Ruhr river and some sites of cultural importance nearby to satisfy Christoph's appetite for history (have we mentioned that Christoph is the intellectual-in-chief of all players of the Bundesliga?). A date was quickly found: the Wednesday after the Derby, a day that was followed by a public holiday (read: opportunity to sleep in for most of us). So we asked the members for help with the preparations and Christoph to take care of the weather.
Yet it came as it usually does – nothing went as planned. The torrential rain that had briefly dimmed our fun at the Derby continued for days on end, so we had to say good-bye to the lovely spot in the woods and find a location better suited to protect us from the elements.
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Rescue came in the person of our member Norbert, proud owner of a beautiful house with a room in the basement perfectly suited to our needs. What is more, Norbert's house also featured a spacious garage that could house the barbecue, because a barbecue it was to be, rain or not. Thus, we re-routed to Ottmarsbocholt (a borough of Senden near Haltern, Christoph's birth place).
Yet this was easier said than done as on that particular Wednesday prior to Ascension Day millions of motorists turned the motorways around Dortmund into the biggest parking lot this side of the Atlantic. Our honorary member as well as half of our board were still in the throngs of a huge traffic jam, while the first sausages already sizzled on the barbecue in Ottmarsbocholt. But we would not be Metzelder FC if those trifling matters could diminish our fun – or hunger.
Another trifling matter, the fact that Norbert's house was situated in a new part of town and the street not stored in any GPS, thus deterring Christoph from reaching us after braving the traffic jam, was quickly solved by some of our members who knew the area setting out to find our honorary member lost in space. They caught up with him at a local filling station, deeply in conversation with the owner (there is nothing like good communication skills). After our missing board member had finally made it to Ottmarsbocholt, too, we were complete at last.
Since the BVB is a traditional club of the Ruhr area, where everybody has to earn his daily bread (or sausage) with honest work, Christoph was intended for manning the barbecue and – future Real Madrid player or not – feed the hungry two dozen. For this purpose we had had an apron (black, of course!) printed (in yellow, of course!) with the fitting text "Here is Metze at work – please cheer him on". At first Christoph eyed the apron rather suspiciously, but later he did not want to part with it.
Then we sent Christoph, equipped with barbecue tongs and a package of sausages, to the barbecue, where he was to fool around with the sausages to his heart's content, while some members of his fan club fooled around with a bottle of Jägermeister (German herb liquor). Believe it or not, Christoph turned the sausages so well that we even let him handle Cevapcici later on. He's such a natural...
Before the sun could set on this eventful day we slipped in the obligatory photo session. Since Inge and Karin still had not grown and Christoph was still considerably taller, we had to employ an empty beer crate and a wheel barrow. Discover the possibilities!
Now, we are in the lucky position to have Carsten, the Original Fruit Tea Ultra, in our ranks. Thus, we not only had Jägermeister on stock, which, by the way, was starting to show its effects, but also numerous bags of fruit tea. To kill time while waiting for the group picture to be taken, Christoph started to nonchalantly swirl his tea bag. Jörg, Carsten, Andrea and Silke could not resist the temptation and fell in, with a merry song on their lips. This had a somewhat sectarian undertone, and the video, for obvious reasons, is only available in the section reserved for members. Only after our roars of laughter had ebbed were we able to continue the photo session with the group picture.
As mentioned before, the BVB is a traditional club of the Ruhr area, so Christoph had to earn his presents with hard work as well. We had prepared some questions for him, some of which he did not answer to our complete satisfaction. For example, large sections of his itinerary of a match day from a fan's point of view had to be corrected by us, the experts. Yet what did it matter, we had lots of fun!
Then we wanted to put Christoph's famous sense of memory to the test as he had claimed to remember each and every one of his 125 Bundesliga matches. What can we say, the man with the mighty brain nonplussed us all when he was able to answer even the fifth of our very difficult questions correctly, so we decided to let him have his reward. At long last he got the exclusive football action figurine that a Chinese company, which, by the way, had already been sued several times for plagiarism, custom-made from one of his autograph cards.
Okay, the Chinese had not quite worked 100 % to the original, but take away the sucking thumb and the fluffy tail, and the resemblance between Christoph and the action figurine is striking. Christoph fell immediately for his new friend and let peanuts be peanuts to cuddle his Monchhichi, which will certainly keep him company in Madrid.
As a keepsake to remember the last seven years with the BVB and his fan club we had prepared a book with many photos and personal farewell wishes. To this book contributed not only members of the fan club but also his fellow players at the BVB and other people who had been close to him. Among others, Rudi Völler and Josef Schneck (Communications Manager at BVB) paid tribute to Christoph.
Christoph was able to dry the inevitable tears of emotion following the handing over of the book with his new scarf of the (entirely superfluous) BVB ladies collection. We figured that if a guy wears pink scarves, they should at least have Borussia Dortmund written on them. This special cuddly blanket will certainly come in handy in Madrid.
Sadly, even the best evening has to end, and it was time to say good-bye. Christoph would not have it any other way and bade farewell to each and every one of us personally. Even Jörg received a fond embrace, so to say as a revenge for a stupid remark concerning the pink scarf.
It was a good-bye that even touched Christoph, who always excels in hiding his true feelings. And thus he was quick to assure that it was "only a good-bye from Dortmund" – and even this only temporary – and then he invited all of us to the next fan club meeting in Madrid.
When Christoph finally got into his car to reach home on time as he had an early morning training session to attend the next day, we took to bringing the party to a proper end and discuss our impressions.
We all reached the same conclusion quickly: it was a brilliant evening, an enjoyable fan club meeting that we will always look back on with fond memories – and we are already looking forward to Madrid!
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