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President Infantino at the association headquarters in Zurich: "Completely legitimate, completely legal"
Photo:
Andreas Chudowski / DER SPIEGEL
He has just had a Bircher muesli for breakfast that an employee from the bakery brought him, and for a moment, distracted by his own exuberant greeting, Gianni Infantino forgets the empty spooned bowl that is in the middle of his desk.
"Hello, how are you?" He calls.
"Fantastic!
Welcome!
Welcome!"
He has agreed that SPIEGEL will accompany him because he wants to show that he does not correspond to the ugly image that the media usually draw of him, that of an unscrupulous businessman.
But: that he is a good person who is committed to ensuring that women are allowed to play football all over the world, who speaks out against child trafficking and who works closely with the World Health Organization in the fight against the corona pandemic.
Football as a development worker, as an engine for progress, that's what it's all about: Football should be global and connect people.
Infantino would then be a man who dreams that sport can change something, that it makes the world a little bit better.
He, the functionary, would then be what every football fan is.
A romantic.
An idealist.
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