Exotic in two ways

18 August 2017 is the day of opening matches for Alexander Fangmann: As with so many other Bayer 04 fans he can hardly wait for his favourite team to start the league campaign away to record champions Bayern Munich. However, Fangmann will not be able to watch the opening match in the Bundesliga live as the 32-year-old will lead out the Germany Blind Football team against Italy an hour before the kick-off at the Allianz Arena – for the opening match of the European Championships in Berlin.

It is the first major tournament on German soil – an important occasion for Fangmann as he has been involved with Blind Football in Germany from its inception. It all began in 2006, during the World Cup in Germany, when a workshop was held on the almost unknown subject of Blind Football at the time. Fangmann took part and was hooked from the start. He became a pioneer setting up structures and, almost casually became the captain of the newly formed national team.

At the end of the day, it was impossible for a football-mad nation not to have heard of a sport involving two teams of five with four blind outfield players and a sighted goalkeeper plus a ball with a bell in it – while Blind Football had already been played in other European nations for up to 20 years. Now, ten years after the national team was established, Fangmann has the most caps and goals and has won the Bundesliga title five times with MTV Stuttgart since it was founded in 2008.

Bayer 04 Fan BECAUSE OF Völler And Kirsten

He still wears the captain’s armband for Germany and he does it like one of his childhood heroes: Fangmann was able to see the current Bayer 04 sporting director Rudi Völler playing at the 1990 World Cup finals before he lost his sight at the age of eight after suffering a detached retina. He continued to play and follow football with enthusiasm, Völler , then playing for Bayer 04,was his hero, as was his fellow striker Ulf Kirsten – and Fangmann was a Leverkusen fan from that point. Not quite to be expected as he came from Lower Saxony where Werkself fans are few and far between. “I felt rather exotic but it was cool,” explained Fangmann and also exotic as a blind boy at a sighted school.

His first season as a Werkself fan almost ended with relegation in 1996. "Performances gradually got better and better and you could always boast about the attractive attacking football the team played," he said with a laugh. And the fact Bayer 04 with the first club in Germany to introduce match commentary for the blind at their stadium in 1999 further strengthened his liking for the Black and Reds. "I really like that. The reporters match commentaries made you feel part of it all," said Fangmann, who travelled over 200 km to Leverkusen several times a season as a teenager to support the Werkself from one of the seats for the visually impaired in the South Stand at the BayArena.

As his studying took him to the southern part of Germany he only made rare visits to the stadium – very much to his own regret. His last home game was over five years ago when Stefan Kießling scored twice in a 4-1 win against FC Augsburg in February 2012. Whenever he can, he follows matches live on radio and television. "I'll drop everything to follow the game if I'm not training or playing myself." If the Werkself are playing away games in the vicinity he often attends the games – particularly in Stuttgart where he is now based. Following completion of his studies at the University of Tübingen is now looking for a job in online journalism. That is proving to be particularly difficult as Fangmann explains. "I'm just not the perfect video journalist," he said with a certain amount of self irony.

EUROS in Berlin: SEMI-FINAL TARGET

If he had been born in another country he could earn a not insignificant part of his income through his hobby. In England or Spain, as Fangmann explained, visually impaired footballers are pros and they earn a comparable amount to the players in the Women's Bundesliga. The Turkey international team received €30,000 from the state for winning the European Championships in 2015 while in Germany there are no similar payments with expenses being paid at best. That made Alexander Fangmann even happier to beat both England and Turkey in recent friendlies. Over the past three to for years a lot more work has been put into football for the visually impaired in Germany and the training and infrastructure is becoming more and more professional. In preparations for the European Championships in Berlin from 18 to 26 August Fangmann and his international team-mates receive fitness and performance tests plus sessions with a fitness coach in the winter for the first time.

That is intended to achieve a satisfactory result in the forthcoming European Championships. The target is to reach the semi-finals. That would qualify the Germany team for next years world Cup finals in Spain. "If we get to the semi-finals then obviously we want to win," said Fangmann optimistically. It is equally important to him that the event is well organised and well attended. He is particularly looking forward to the many spectators from his circle of family and friends.

After the opening match against Italy there will be a pause. Alexander Fangmann wants to get behind the Werkself, who he believes will qualify for Europe again this season, for the match against Bayern Munich. "Fortunately the team hotel is just across the road. So I'll have a quick shower and then hopefully I'll make the second half," he said.