On Sunday late at night, the owner of the most prestigious trophy in world sports became known - the world champion in football. A day earlier, in the consolation finals, the national teams of Germany and Portugal amazed the audience with glory, showing a carefree and vital football. Thanks to the inspired game of Schweinsteiger, who scored twice himself and once forced him to do this, the Germans won - 3: 1. After spending more than two weeks at the world championships, Izvestia’s special correspondent concluded that third place is only a small fraction of what the World Cup brought Germany this summer.
Money
"Germany plans to earn about 3 billion euros in the championship - and this is only for the most modest estimates," - saying this at the start of the mundial, the country's economy minister Michael Gloss did not deceive people. Especially for the championship in Germany, 50 thousand new jobs were created, and consumer activity reached its five-year ceiling.
The transport load during the championship was three times higher than expected. In early summer, the German railway concern Deutsche Bahn planned to transport 5 million fans in a month, but it turned out - all 15. They increased their capital and local breweries, which, however, had to survive one shock - parting with the championship of the English national team already at the final stage. Fans of the British team were considered the most drinkers in the tournament: for example, in Nuremberg, for every fan from foggy Albion, there were 17 pints of beer drunk. The German Football Union also worked very well: for the semi-final, his team will receive $ 16.5 million from FIFA, most of which will go to bonus players.
Patriotism
The World Cup is the first explosion of patriotism within Germany in the last 16 years. The previous one was during the reunification of the country, after which the local population again lost consciousness and once again tried not to emphasize their nationality. The championship of the planet has changed everything: German banners are hanging in every fifth window, and the main element of car tuning was plastic nozzles clamped between the glass and the roof of the car - small German flags feel very comfortable in them. In total, according to statistics, over 4 million flags have been sold in Germany over the past month - an absolutely amazing figure for this country.
“Our people have always been ashamed of their national symbols,” Matthias Hamman told Izvestia correspondent, who organized the exhibition “Who are the Germans?” In Nuremberg before the championship. “The reason for this on the surface is our history, which survived such a thing as fascism, symbols were stained. People stopped believing in them. Everything that was German or had the slightest relation to Germany was automatically connected with Nazism. Now there is a change. "
Image
On the eve of the match for third place in the Munich central reference station, an elderly Italian couple who did not know a single word in English tried to orient themselves in the schedule of the train they needed. A young man with bangs painted in German was silent like a fish, pretending that he did not know, in turn, Italian. When the couple left, the employee of the information point opened his soul to an Izvestia correspondent:
“I speak their language perfectly!” But after what they did to us in the semifinals, I’m not even going to communicate with them. Germany was better and had to win.
The Munich clerk is one of the few Germans who during the championship was capable of such meanness. Over the past month, Germany has been able to destroy the stereotype that its population is boring, reserved and very inhospitable people.
After defeating Portugal, the capital of Germany walked until the morning. At venues organized for fans, people danced at post-match discos. Fans desperately stepped out onto the roadway, stopped the buses and kept them in a living ring until the driver waved to them.
The police stood on the sidelines and took pictures against the backdrop of the Brandenburg Gate, where did the fans of the Cameroon national team come from ...
Yuri DUD, Berlin