Ilkay Gundogan is leading a charitable initiative to help the elderly and healthcare workers in his native Germany during the coronavirus crisis.
The Manchester City midfielder was quick to recognise the strain the Covid-19 pandemic had put on society and is fronting a shopping service for the vulnerable who are unable to get to supermarkets and gifting care packages to nursing staff who are working in intensive care units.
Gundogan was particularly keen to help people in Heinsberg, the worst affected area in Germany and near his former club Borussia Dortmund and his birthplace, Gelsenkirchen.
He also sent a video message of support to staff in a clinic in Nuremberg while pledging to visit them when he can.
He said: “I’ve done these things because I can identify with them. Heinsberg was pretty much the Corona outbreak in Germany and it’s not far from my hometown, so there’s a connection. Gelsenkirchen is my home and there was a possibility to do something so I did it.
“And Nuremberg, I’ve lived there for a long time, it was my first professional team. My former school principal contacted me. I like him a lot and I’m still in touch with him. We made a plan and did something.
“I’m a privileged person and I am grateful that I am able to help in those situations. There are many people who struggle, who don’t have a home or food. Not only during the coronavirus crisis. I was very happy to be able to help.”
The Germany international admitted he is finding it difficult to motivate himself, with football already suspended for more than a month and a June restart the best-case scenario.
Gundogan added: “It’s not so easy to motivate yourself these days every day when you are training. Maybe you can compare it to people who are working from home.
"For those people it’s also not the same as driving to work every day and then doing their jobs. You have to motivate yourself to do your work. Some days it’s harder than others.”
Gundogan has stayed in Manchester in the shutdown and finds it strange to see so few people in the heart of what is normally a busy city.
“I look out of the window, and I live in the city centre, it’s all quite empty,” he said. “You see a few people on bikes or walking, but always just groups of one or two. I try to go out every one or two days to get some fresh air.
"I’ll make coffee at home, take a bottle of water and get a little recharging in the sun.”
It's not so easy to motivate yourself these days every day when you are training.
Gundogan is training, albeit remotely, with his compatriot Leroy Sane and is looking forward to the winger’s comeback.
Sane was injured in August’s Community Shield and Gundogan added: “We have the same fitness coach in Germany. Some days we do our exercises via FaceTime. It’s worked out well so far and we’re trying to be very focused.
"Leroy had already trained with the team and he had his comeback in sight, even though he still had a few minor things. But he was almost back at playing again.
"Especially for your psyche, it’s important to be able to play again after such a long time. He now has more time to figure out the minor problems he has.
Gundogan hopes he has found one positive from tough times with the postponement of Euro 2020 for a year giving Sane and Bayern Munich defender Niklas Sule more time to recover from injuries. “The current situation also has some good sides for these guys,” he said.
AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The five pillars of Islam
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
What is the definition of an SME?
SMEs in the UAE are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover and sector. For example, a “small company” in the services industry has six to 50 employees with a turnover of more than Dh2 million up to Dh20m, while in the manufacturing industry the requirements are 10 to 100 employees with a turnover of more than Dh3m up to Dh50m, according to Dubai SME, an agency of the Department of Economic Development.
A “medium-sized company” can either have staff of 51 to 200 employees or 101 to 250 employees, and a turnover less than or equal to Dh200m or Dh250m, again depending on whether the business is in the trading, manufacturing or services sectors.
Results
ATP Dubai Championships on Monday (x indicates seed):
First round
Roger Federer (SUI x2) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
Fernando Verdasco (ESP) bt Thomas Fabbiano (ITA) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
Marton Fucsovics (HUN) bt Damir Dzumhur (BIH) 6-1, 7-6 (7/5)
Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) bt Karen Khachanov (RUS x4) 6-4, 6-1
Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) bt Milos Raonic (CAN x7) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Sunday:
GP3 race: 12:10pm
Formula 2 race: 1:35pm
Formula 1 race: 5:10pm
Performance: Guns N' Roses
TO%20CATCH%20A%20KILLER
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDamian%20Szifron%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Shailene%20Woodley%2C%20Ben%20Mendelsohn%2C%20Ralph%20Ineson%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Brief scores:
Toss: Pakhtunkhwa Zalmi, chose to field
Environment Agency: 193-3 (20 ov)
Ikhlaq 76 not out, Khaliya 58, Ahsan 55
Pakhtunkhwa Zalmi: 194-2 (18.3 ov)
Afridi 95 not out, Sajid 55, Rizwan 36 not out
Result: Pakhtunkhwa won by 8 wickets
The specs
Engine: 5.0-litre V8
Power: 480hp at 7,250rpm
Torque: 566Nm at 4,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: L/100km
Price: Dh306,495
On sale: now
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
Sukuk
An Islamic bond structured in a way to generate returns without violating Sharia strictures on prohibition of interest.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922 – 1923
Editor Ze’ev Rosenkranz
Princeton
