Unvaccinated Bayern professional Joshua Kimmich: fallen out of role model role

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Football star Kimmich

Photo: Julia Rahn / imago images / Pressefoto Baumann

The footballer Joshua Kimmich received great praise a few weeks ago.

For the fact that the Bayern professional takes his financial and contractual matters into his own hands and, unlike almost all of his professional colleagues, does not need any consultants.

What a mature footballer, mature, enlightened!

Someone who knows what is best for him.

And he's also socially committed: When the corona pandemic hit Germany, he and his teammate Leon Goretzka immediately took the initiative, raised millions for charitable purposes with the “We kick Corona” campaign and donated a seven-figure contribution himself .

Joshua Kimmich, the model professional.

An example.

This picture has been cracking since the weekend.

Kimmich of all people.

Who would have been more likely to have been one of the first to be vaccinated, of all people, so far he has stayed away from the vaccination.

Bavaria's interim coach Dino Toppmöller pointed out at the weekend, when the topic was boiling, that the association was offering information talks with its doctors, where one could find out about the chances and risks of vaccinations.

Kimmich refused.

Here, too, he apparently does not need any advice.

You can at least call it consistent.

Kimmich has all options

Whether Kimmich wants to be vaccinated or not, that is his private affair, it can now be heard from many sides, especially from the club itself.

That's right for now.

There is no compulsory vaccination, and that also applies to footballers.

In an industry in which the body is the most important capital, it is also conceivable that there are more concerns about vaccination in elite sport than elsewhere.

Physical after-effects of a vaccination have a direct impact on athletic performance.

In a news society as diffuse as this one, that can trigger fears.

But all of this only applies to Joshua Kimmich to a limited extent, and that also makes the Kimmich case a special case.

If there are people who have every opportunity to get an idea of ​​the situation, then he is one of them.

Not only FC Bayern offers briefings on the subject, at the DFB the national players were kept up to date on the corona situation.

DFB team doctor Tim Meyer worked out the hygiene concept for the Bundesliga.

And last but not least, Kimmich has the opportunity to contact specialists from medicine and science at any time via “We kick Corona”.

Kimmich is in the middle of an information bubble on the subject of Corona, with all its facets.

Because Corona directly affects top-class sport and is therefore not an issue that athletes can ignore.

Because footballers have had their professional and private actions to be based on the rules of the pandemic for over a year, more than others.

That is the price that they have been able to continue practicing their profession almost continuously during the pandemic.

Celebrity factor will deter others too

When Kimmich points out that he is still waiting for relevant studies, he pretends to be a normal Otto consumer somewhere at the end of the information chain.

The expected effect seems clear: If someone like Kimmich has concerns, who cares so comprehensively about Corona, why should I get vaccinated?

That would then again serve as a role model, but this time in the opposite direction.

The example of Tatort star Jan Josef Liefers has sufficiently proven what the celebrity factor makes in the already heated corona discussions.

Just six days ago Joshua Kimmich visited seriously ill children in the palliative care unit of the Großhadern Clinic in Munich - on his day off.

Another model appointment.

In the light of the reports from the weekend, however, you now have to put an "actually" in front of it.

In two weeks, the national players will meet for the last international matches of the year.

Then the DFB will again point out its vaccination campaign.

When it started in September, the national coach Hansi Flick was quoted as saying: “Vaccination is our safest and fastest way back to normality.

Let us all go together. "

That should also apply to the key player in the national team, Joshua Kimmich.