Werkself games at breakfast time

Witali Grabowski has a demanding job as Head of Controlling at Bayer Kansas City. It would be good if he could have a lie-in at the weekend. But that's rarely possible on a normal Saturday. For example, if the Werkself game against Union Berlin at the BayArena kicks off at 15.30 CET then Witali, his wife Andrea and sons Jonas and Nikolai are set at the breakfast table in front of the television. In the Midwest of the USA it is 8.30 in the morning, seven hours earlier. But that doesn't matter because the Grabowskis are ready to go and can hardly wait for the game to start.

The family from Burscheid moved to Overland Park, a few miles south of Kansas City, in July 2018. One of their first investments: A Bundesliga subscription for $190 per year so Witali does not have to miss a single Bayer 04 fixture. Watching the television, he wears the new home shirt sent to him by former work colleagues from the Bayer facility in Monheim as a present on his 40th birthday. A Bayer 04 flag flies outside the house. Witali is living in Kansas as part of the Werkself diaspora. None of his colleagues at work share his passion for the Black and Reds. And very few Americans know that the company also has a football club. "Only the Mexicans, and there are a lot of them here, know Bayer 04 very well and rate the club – which is definitely due to Chicharito," explains Witali whose heroes include players like Bum-kun Cha and the Brazilian Paulo Sergio.

From time to time, he goes to watch Sporting Kansas City, who were on the wrong end of a 7-2 scoreline this season in the Major League against LA Galaxy with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the team. Witali was in a crowd of 18,570 a while ago as Bastian Schweinsteiger, who ended his career in October, was playing for Chicago Fire against Kansas City at the Children's Mercy Park Stadium. "I was surprised by the great atmosphere at football matches here. The Americans try to reproduce the European fan culture with club songs and everything else involved," said Witali also enjoys 'Tailgating'. Fans meet up a long time before kick-off on the car parks in front of the stadium, bring out barbecues from their car boots and play football or American football. "A huge event and a great way to get warmed up for the game," raves Witali.

Of course, that's no real substitute for the live games missed at the BayArena. The Grabowskis return to Burscheid over the Christmas break. Witali has already marked out a date on the calendar: For the Werkself home game against Hertha Berlin on 18 December.