German football has a new monument to its excellence, to what makes it unique.
It opened at the end of last month and, in spite of a steep entry fee, some €17 (Dh66) if you turn up on the day for a spontaneous visit, a reported 10,000 tickets were sold in its first week of operation.
It is the Deutsche Fussballmuseum and it chose as its location the part of the country where tickets to see the country’s most popular sport live are purchased in highest concentrations.
That is not the capital, Berlin, and it is not the main city of Bavaria, Munich, where Bayern currently sweep up most of the honours, prizes and plaudits available in the domestic game.
It is in Dortmund, where the museum faces the railway station, from where trains can carry you swiftly to five of the nearby Bundesliga clubs jousting to be considered the league’s most vibrant team outside Munich.
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This weekend, the area around the Ruhr valley and to its immediate south will certainly look, and sound like the centre of German football.
There is a derby on Saturday between Bayer Leverkusen and Koln, clubs close in proximity but very distinct in character, and then there is Sunday’s clashing of cymbals and drumrolls for Borussia Dortmund against Schalke.
That one tends to be the noisiest of them all, and a high-pressure occasion for players, coaches and supporters.
The Rhine-Ruhr rivalries are all intense, and the sheer number of derbies in the region can sometimes seem suffocating.
Schalke’s season has gone off track in recent weeks thanks largely to the successive defeats they suffered against nearby Borussia Monchengladbach, in the league and, three days later, in the German Cup.
Monchengladbach are an irritant to Schalke.
They have spent this autumn where Schalke think they naturally belong: in the Uefa Champions League.
Gladbach’s very presence there, though it will not extend into the new year, says something about the fluid, even the dynamic nature of the Bundesliga, at least for the clubs in the distant slipstream of leaders and champions Bayern.
Gladbach currently have some of the momentum, domestically, that helped them finish third in 2014-15, having won six out of their last six in the league.
Meanwhile, Leverkusen, one of four Rhine-Ruhr clubs within five points of one another aspiring to fourth place – at least – and with that a Champions League spot, would love to have that sort of consistency. They are the wild, reckless representatives of the region.
They host Koln having scored 17 goals in their last five outings. But they have won only two of those, and defeat to Roma in midweek, in the Champions League, damaged their chances of being involved in that competition’s knockout phase.
It is an unusual season when neither Dortmund or Schalke are in the starting blocks of the European Cup.
Both are in the Europa League, having disappointed their large number of supporters last season.
Yet hope springs eternal in blue Gelsenkirchen and yellow-and-back Dortmund, to where Schalke supporters will make the short journey tomorrow, hoping to close the six point gap that separates their club, fourth, from their rivals in second.
For Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel, it represents a special day. It will be his first Ruhr derby since replacing Jurgen Klopp.
He anticipates “a special atmosphere, a special energy,” and anxiously waits on fitness bulletins for Marco Reus.
His best alibi for goals – and Dortmund have scored freely, their one blemish on his watch so far a 5-1 defeat against Bayern – should be fit and primed. And he will be fast.
Pierre-Emerick Aubeyamang has under Tuchel allied his lightning speed with prolific finishing.
He has 13 Bundesliga goals so far and another eight from his European and German Cup games.
“A pleasure to work with,” said his coach of the Gabonese goal-getter. And, for Schalke defenders, a prospect to keep them awake tonight.
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