The Merkur CUP is canceled for the second time.
But it pays to stay tuned, as four examples show.
Munich
- The Merkur CUP, which is over 25 years old, unites well-known personalities under the umbrella of the world's largest e-junior soccer tournament.
Patron Manni Schwabl, Bavaria's Minister of the Interior and Merkur CUP sponsor Joachim Herrmann and Merkur CUP ambassador Guido Buchwald have been supporting the tournament for nine and ten-year-old footballers between Moosburg and Mittenwald as well as Bayrischzell and Steingaden for years.
With the European Football Championship, which is about to begin, another four names of those who are inextricably linked with the Merkur CUP are currently appearing.
Three of them are in the squad of the German national soccer team, the fourth is literally "talking about":
Mats Hummels
On July 11, 1999, Mats Hummels and his teammates in Bayern E-Jugend experienced the same fate as the pros of the German record champions on May 26, 1999 in the UEFA Champions League final against Manchester United in Barcelona.
Both teams lost their grand finals.
Mats Hummels lost to the lions in the Wolfratshauser Isar-Loisach-Stadion and had to watch how patron Dr.
Edmund Stoiber presented the trophy to the blues.
"Losing the Merkur CUP is worse than the Champions League," was his comment at the time to his younger brother Jonas, "because you can only play the Merkur CUP once in a lifetime."
Thomas Müller
Thomas Müller, the FCB identification figure often referred to as the “parade Bavarian”, was discovered in the TSV Pähl team at the Merkur CUP in 2000, and he still emphasizes today that “having fun with football is the most important thing!
Only go home from the sports field when your knees are green. ”And now he's returned to the national team.
Looking back at the beginning of his great football career, he also thinks of bad days.
"We won a lot with TSV Pähl," remembers Müller, but then, when we reached the Merkur CUP final in 2000, we also suffered defeats. "And that also meant an incentive for him to stick with it the next action will be a better one.
“That has helped me all my life.
I never bury my head in the sand! ”Says“ Radio ”Müller.
Florian Neuhaus
In 2016, Florian Neuhaus´ 2-1 winning goal of his TSV 1860 Munich against Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of the semi-finals of the German A-Junior Championship was voted “Goal of the Month” by the viewers of the Sportschau.
As a special reminder of his early years in football, Florian Neuhaus mentions the 2007 Merkur CUP final in Wartenberg (Erding district): "With my VfL Kaufering, we even beat TSV 1860 Munich!" He probably made a lasting impression on those responsible for the Lions leave.
Immediately after the final, he played for TSV 1860 Munich in the youth team for ten years.
Sandro Wagner
The fourth in the league is Sandro Wagner, the former Bayern professional who was recently appointed Merkur CUP ambassador and future U-19 trainer for SpVgg Unterhaching. As is now known, he will expertly revive the European Football Championship as a co-commentator on ZDF. He just speaks straight out, without frills and fussing around and enlivens the commentator stage. Honesty is one of the most important attributes for Sandro Wagner, who emphasizes, "Children can never learn early enough what true values are."
In 1998, Wagner won the Merkur CUP with his heart club FC Bayern Munich and remembers it as if it were just yesterday.
Looking back, Sandro Wagner enthuses: “I can't remember a tournament in my youth until the U21 European Championship 2009 that left such a formative impression as the Merkur CUP.
I can't really put it into words. These are just great feelings. "
A Merkur CUP tournament for the best of the best is to take place in Unterhaching this year.
The motto “We won't let ourselves get down”.
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