DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 Glocal yet national-German Soccer Culture, Identity, and Vereinsgeschichte 191 Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media Sabine Waas College of William & Mary Abstract: Starting in the 1970s, West German athletes were not only competing on the field but also off the field for television commercials, advertisement space, newspaper articles, and lucrative endorsement deals� New consumption patterns and changes in television audiences made it possible for athletes like Franz Beckenbauer to achieve celebrity status in Germany� Beckenbauer and his life achievements paved the way for subsequent soccer generations such as 2014 FIFA World Cup winners Lukas Podolski and Jérôme Boateng� These soccer players, who have a Migrationshintergrund , have gained attention in tabloids, social media, music, and fan forums, elevating them to celebrities� Changes in consumer culture, commercialization of soccer, and technological advancement make a compelling case for re-examining the role of media in constructing and perpetuating German soccer celebrities in the 21 st century� This article examines the depiction of Jérôme Boateng, the first Afro-German World Cup champion, in Germany’s leading sports media ( Das aktuelle Sportstudio, 11 Freunde , and Kicker ), and in Michael Horeni’s 2012 biography of Boateng, Die Brüder Boateng � Keywords: celebrity, soccer, football, Migrationshintergrund , sports media, representation As the most popular sport in Germany, soccer has become part of the collective self-understanding of the nation, as exemplified by the media dubbed events ‘Das Wunder von Bern’ (West Germany’s first FIFA World Cup Championship in 1954), and ‘Das Sommermärchen’ (the fairytale-like rise of the German national team at the 2006 World Cup in Germany)� Soccer’s role in Germany has changed throughout the years, from being a working-class pastime in the Weimar Republic to becoming part of the entertainment industry in West Germany in the 1960s and continuing to be so to this day� 1 Whereas the 1954 iteration of 192 Sabine Waas DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 the West German national team “expressed a collective identity as 11 friends” (Kaelberer 281), the 1974 squad consisted of star players like Franz Beckenbauer and Günter Netzer, who introduced the era of the sports celebrity in West Germany� Beckenbauer and other players of the 1974 West German soccer team earned the right to be compensated for their participation in the 1974 World Cup in West Germany (Schiller 215)� 2 With the help of his business manager Robert Schwan, Beckenbauer landed numerous endorsement deals and became the “first fully ‘marketized’ German athlete and set the stage for other German top athletes” (Schiller 209)� Not just soccer fans were interested in Beckenbauer anymore� Tabloid readers tried to keep up with Beckenbauer’s celebrity lifestyle, including his three marriages, celebrity friends (e�g�, Henry Kissinger and Andy Warhol), appearances at high society events such as the Vienna Opera Ball, Bayreuth Festival, and Metropolitan Opera in Europe and in the United States� 3 Beckenbauer, who died in January 2024, and his life achievements paved the way for subsequent soccer generations such as 2014 FIFA World Cup winners Lukas Podolski, Jérôme Boateng, and Mesut Özil. 4 This generation, however, adds two new layers to soccer celebrities� Podolski, Boateng, and Özil are considered players “ mit Migrationshintergrund ” (with a migration background), a term referring to people (a) who did not acquire German citizenship at birth or (b) whose parents did not acquire German citizenship at birth (“Personen mit Migrationshintergrund”)� 5 Starting in 2006, Germany’s national team has become more multicultural, which is reflected in the most recent German national team’s squad� 6 As UEFA EURO 2024 was approaching, head coach Julian Nagelsmann fielded nine players mit Migrationshintergrund (including four players with African descent) for the friendly matches against France and the Netherlands in the spring of 2024� 7 This new and diverse soccer generation not only surround themselves with a team of specialists, such as agents and managers, who help them with personal and business matters, but also produce their own content through “ presentational media ” (Marshall “Persona Studies” 157)� This represents a crucial shift from early celebrity coverage, which almost solely relied on “ representational media” (Marshall “Persona Studies” 157), such as film, television, radio, magazines, newspapers, and books� Soccer players are not only spokespeople for various consumer goods but also market themselves as entrepreneurs, philanthropists, designers, musicians, writers, friends of heads of state, and role models for fans� In a capitalist society, “celebrities [function] as both products (the preponderance of celebrity-driven media and commodities) and processes (the pre-eminence of celebrity endorsement)” (Andrews and Jackson 4)� These changes in consumer culture, commercialization of soccer, and technological advancement make a compelling case for re-examining the role of media Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media 193 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 in constructing and perpetuating German soccer celebrities in the 21 st century� This article examines the depiction of Jérôme Boateng, the first Afro-German World Cup champion, in Germany’s leading sports magazines ( 11 Freunde and Kicker ), in the sports television show Das aktuelle Sportstudio , and in sport journalist Michael Horeni’s 2012 biography of Boateng, Die Brüder Boateng: Eine deutsche Familiengeschichte ( The Boateng Brothers: A German Family History )� One can become a celebrity in three ways: ascription, achievement, and attribution (Rojek 17)� The “traditional” celebrities follow the logic of lineage (such as royals), whereas achieved celebrities accomplish their status through “perceived accomplishments” (Rojek 18)� Those individuals usually distinguish themselves from others by exceptional talent or skill, such as athletes or actors� If cultural intermediaries like the mass media consider someone ordinary “noteworthy or exceptional,” (Rojek 18) this individual is considered an attributed celebrity. The following question arises: What is the difference between a celebrity and a sports celebrity? To answer this, an engagement with Richard Dyer’s (1979, 1986) analysis of a film star’s function is required. Dyer points to the interplay between the stars’ image as represented through film performances, and as publicized via various media texts, such as fan clubs and promotional material, through which the stars’ “constructed personages” (Dyer Stars 90) become formed in the minds of the consuming audience� Athletes, according to David L. Andrews and Steven J. Jackson, must first demonstrate “performative excellence” (8) to achieve and maintain celebrity status� Therefore, their celebrity status is considered more authentic than others� It is also easier for athletes to become a celebrity due to their “heightened presence and affection within popular consciousness” (Andrews and Jackson 8). David L. Andrews and Bryan Clift apply the filmic differentiation between performers, actors, and stars to the soccer world� The so-called “labourers,” (Andrews and Clift 202) who are equivalent to the performers in the filmic sense, have limited soccer abilities, and attain almost no recognition. A significant level of talent is ascribed to actors and their soccer counterparts, the “players,” who are recognized as key contributors to their respective teams by people within and outside the soccer industry (Andrews and Clift 202)� 8 “Stars” are individual players who stand out, usually play more offensively (normally forwards), and their excellence is “routinely capitalized upon, within the extra-football world, whereby the individual becomes celebritized” (Andrews and Clift 202)� 9 Boateng’s case seems to be the exception to the norm, since he became a celebrity inside (as a defensive player) 10 and outside of the soccer world (brand ambassador for Nike, focal point in gossip magazines, entrepreneur)� Sports celebrity culture has not only separated itself from other cultural areas but has also changed dramatically since the 1960s� Relationships between 194 Sabine Waas DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 sports celebrities and others were relatively infrequent in the 1950s� 11 Nowadays, relationships between celebrities from different cultural areas seem to be more common, e�g�, David and Victoria Beckham, singer Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, and model Kate Upton and Justin Verlander� Due to the extension of the sports sphere into other cultural sectors, celebrities now have two options for media coverage, through sports media and the boulevard press� 12 Sports celebrity coverage offers multiple staging opportunities, opens the door to more fans, and depicts the celebrities in a positive light (Bertling 339—40)� In Germany, the nationwide newspaper Bild contributed to celebrity coverage as early as the 1950s but has made it its main emphasis, together with sports, since the 1960s� 13 Being the best-selling European newspaper, it enjoys a high reputation for its sports coverage, but it is also notorious for its gossip, inflammatory language, and sensationalism� The coverage of soccer games changed from printing press and radio to television in 1958, which added to the nationwide popularity of soccer� Television contributed to the prevalence of sports between 1960 and 1980, but television also changed it, making various sports “commodified global spectacles, producing huge audiences and massive new sources of income” (Whannel 206)� The first public television broadcaster ARD and the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (German Football Association; hereafter DFB) signed a contract, allowing ARD to broadcast one club game and two games in total per month (albeit not on a Sunday)� 14 With the introduction of the dual broadcasting system, private broadcasters were competing with public ones over soccer match broadcasting rights� 15 Within the past twenty years, commercialization, professionalization, and globalization have changed the landscape of sports and have contributed to cross-media marketing of associations, institutions, clubs, and soccer celebrities� However, celebrities or their publicists can also present themselves as they wish due to the emergence of social media� Thereby, they produce three forms of self-presentation: the public, public private, and transgressive intimate self� The “public self ” is “the official version” (Marshall “The Promotion” 44) of the celebrity, including semi-official Facebook pages, which share film release dates or event schedules� Publicists are usually in charge of maintaining “the public persona as a valued cultural commodity” (Marshall “The Promotion” 44) of high-profile celebrities. To counter this impersonal image, celebrities tend to use X, formerly Twitter, to present their “public private self ” (Marshall “The Promotion” 44)� X is a platform that enables celebrities to respond immediately and in short texts� However, engaging with the public on a more personal level can also be problematic for celebrities when they are motivated by emotions� This “transgressive intimate self ” (Marshall “The Promotion” 45) can offer new insights into the ‘authentic’ individual celebrity� 16 Social media is one of the Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media 195 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 most important tools for promoting personal and sponsor brands as well as for forming a consumer relationship (Filo et al� 167)� To determine the intertextual assembly of German sports media representation, this article focuses on Boateng’s depictions in Horeni’s Die Brüder Boateng: Eine deutsche Familiengeschichte , in prominent German sports magazines ( 11 Freunde and Kicker ), and in the sports television show Das aktuelle Sportstudio � The latter has aired late on Saturday evenings at the German public-service broadcaster ZDF since August 24, 1963� Even though the sports show Sportschau , airing on the public broadcaster ARD , has been broadcasting soccer games since 1961, Das aktuelle Sportstudio was the first German show to connect sports with entertainment elements such as the famous Torwandschießen � 17 It invites major sports stars for in-depth interviews and covers main events from all different sports, but most importantly the Bundesliga � Sports magazine Kicker was founded in 1920 by German soccer pioneer Walther Bensemann� It is published twice per week and primarily focuses on soccer� 11 Freunde was founded in 2000 by Reinaldo Coddou H� and Philipp Köster� It appears monthly and focuses mostly on German and international soccer culture� 18 Jérôme Boateng is one of the most popular sportive representatives of the Afro-German 19 population, a term referring to citizens or residents of Germany with Sub-Saharan African roots� Boateng’s father, Prince Boateng, came from Ghana to Berlin on a university scholarship in the early 1980s but ended up working construction and later DJ’ing to provide for his first wife and his sons, George and Kevin-Prince� Jérôme was born during Prince Boateng’s second marriage in West-Berlin in 1988 and grew up in the middle-class district Charlottenburg� Jérôme could have played for Ghana, like his half-brother Kevin-Prince did, but instead chose to play for Germany, winning the 2009 UEFA U-21 EURO as well as the 2014 World Cup� 20 In March 2019, the then-German national coach Joachim Löw announced a change in the national team, which included a dismissal of Boateng for upcoming international matches� Jérôme began his soccer career with the Berlin-based club Hertha BSC in 2007, just like his half-brother Kevin-Prince� In the summer of the same year, Jérôme transferred to Hamburger SV (HSV)� After three years, he tried his luck at the English team Manchester City FC, but after one season, moved back to Germany where he played for FC Bayern München for ten years. After a twoyear-stint at the French club Olympique Lyon, he has been playing for Italian club U�S� Salernitana 1919 since 2024� His club accomplishments include the “Triple: ” winning the Bundesliga , the German Cup, and the Champion League with FC Bayern München in 2013 and 2020. Boateng achieved his celebrity status rather late with his transfer to FC Bayern München. He first demonstrated his “performative excellence” (Andrews 196 Sabine Waas DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 and Jackson 8) with his club and later with the national team, but he has mostly maintained celebrity status through his life outside of soccer� Germany’s most prominent sports television show, Das aktuelle Sportstudio , has capitalized on Boateng’s interests outside of soccer (especially music and fashion), inviting him to appear twice, in 2010 and 2016� Both Boateng episodes are hosted by Kathrin Müller-Hohenstein, who has presented Das aktuelle Sportstudio since January 28, 2006, alternating with Sven Voss and Jochen Breyer� Das aktuelle Sportstudio favored a narrative that emphasizes Boateng’s passion for fashion and his unique family history to underscore his rags-to-riches story� The 2010 episode shows Boateng as a naïve, young 21-year-old who is at the beginning of his career� Das aktuelle Sportstudio tried to increase the news value of this Boateng episode by emphasizing his Ghanaian roots and fashion sense� 21 During the 2010 episode a video about Boateng is shown, in which he is practicing soccer wearing a blue outfit, accompanied by the following remark: “The man [Boateng] simply attracts attention, stands out from the crowd, sometimes in terms of color�” (00: 34: 53)� 22 One could say that the commentator makes a statement about his clothing style, since he stands out from the other HSV players who all wear black during practice� However, the sentence could also hint at Boateng’s Ghanaian roots and skin color� The commentator uses the racial reference as a segue to discuss Boateng’s internet presence, revealing scenes from Boateng’s website accompanied by Pharrell Williams’s debut solo single “Frontin�’” Pharrell, together with US rapper Jay-Z, sings about putting up a façade to impress peers, similar to what Boateng is doing. Host Müller-Hohenstein draws attention to his fashion sense and love for rap and hip hop� 23 Hip hop music has contributed to negative stereotypes about Black men being gang-affiliated, violent, misogynistic, and hypersexualized� 24 As John M� Hoberman wrote, in recent years, the “athlete, the gangster rapper, and the criminal [were merged] into a single black male persona that the sports industry, the music industry, and the advertising industry have made into the predominant image of black masculinity” (xviii)� In Boateng’s case, he markets himself as a hip hop loving celebrity athlete with ties to the cosmopolitan city Berlin� His ties to Berlin are emphasized through Boateng’s Migrationshintergrund as well as his family’s history� His half-brother Kevin-Prince, who also grew up in Berlin, would most likely play against Boateng in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa� 25 Müller-Hohenstein emphasizes the novelty of this possible match by pointing out that Boateng’s father would be the first man to have two sons playing against each other in a World Cup game (Kevin-Prince for Ghana and Jérôme for Germany)� Boateng’s uniqueness is further stressed in a video clip shown in Das aktuelle Sportstudio , highlighting two sides of Boateng: elegant celebrity and work- Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media 197 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 ing-class athlete� In a tuxedo with an untied bow tie and a background of the famous Berlin TV tower, a burning car, and a soccer ball, stands Boateng as the German version of the fictional character James Bond, an action hero who tries to save Berlin� In the middle of the picture is the title “Danger Zone” with the tagline “Faster! More Dangerous! Braver! The toughest Boateng ever! ” 26 The Boateng presented on the website is only marginally associated with soccer, however, the James-Bond-like poster ties him to elegance, speed, glamour, danger, and his hometown Berlin� In order to simultaneously gain the attention of the working-class target audience, Boateng presents himself in another film-poster-like-photo as a Muhammad Ali or Rocky Balboa type, overcoming the hard life in Berlin to become an international soccer player� 27 In this poster, Boateng wears a blue hoodie and black beanie� The poster’s title reads: “Homeland-from Charlottenburg into the World” with the tagline “Born in Berlin� Roots in Ghana�” 28 Berlin and Ghana are written in bold yellow, just like the title of the film “Heimat.” The tagline continues with “He will never forget his neighborhood�” 29 After the supporting role credits, the pseudo-film poster ends with “Berlinale Publikumspreis 2009.” The Publikumspreis is an audience award, thereby displaying Boateng’s popularity among the German audience� This clash between the elegant, yet aggressive, James Bond and the working-class Rocky Balboa exemplifies the two sides of Boateng that appear to constantly be in conflict (from childhood until his adult life)� Both Daniel Craig’s James Bond and Rocky Balboa have working-class roots� 30 In contrast, Boateng comes from a middle-class family, but grew up with half-brothers from a working-class district in Berlin� Despite his attempt to reposition himself as working-class, Boateng continues to embody middle-class and upper-class characteristics including his above-average personal income, cosmopolitan attitude, and multiple career prospects� As it turns out, the James-Bond-like and Rocky-Balboa-like posters are part of Boateng’s own website, which is quite unusual for such a young player in his early career stage. Müller-Hohenstein questions Boateng about his new marketing strategy seemingly not stemming from any scandals surrounding him� Boateng admits that he wanted to move away from the “bad boy” image not due to scandals but because the media had supposedly labeled him a “ghetto kid” (00: 40: 00)� Here, Boateng exposes the German media’s negative and misconstrued portrayal of people mit Migrationshintergrund growing up in Berlin� Furthermore, Boateng points out his fans as reasons for his web presence, thereby presenting his fans (and the media) with his “public private self ” (Marshall “The Promotion” 44)� His website can be seen as the starting point for Boateng’s new marketing strategy with “presentational media” (Marshall “Persona Studies” 157)� 198 Sabine Waas DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 In 2016, Müller-Hohenstein invited Boateng again to Das aktuelle Sportstudio � At the time, Boateng had signed with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports agency, started his own magazine, worked as an eyewear designer, and attended numerous high society events such as the Berlinale� 31 Das aktuelle Sportstudio sensationalizes this episode by repeatedly labeling Boateng a World champion, fashion icon, and sneaker collector (mainly Nike)� This 2016 version of Boateng compared to that of six years prior is confident, more outgoing, funny, conversational, and seems to be an international celebrity (00: 00: 40-00: 02: 15)� An intro video shows the soccer player’s path to success from Jérôme to Boateng, reminiscent of the transition from teenager to adult (00: 34: 05-00: 36: 27)� The 2016 episode implies that Boateng’s sporting performance is no longer contingent on maintaining his celebrity status, as required by sports scholars David L. Andrews and Steven J� Jackson (8)� A video introducing Boateng as “a soccer player with style or a styler who can play soccer” 32 (00: 55: 25-00: 57: 03) questions Boateng’s status as a sports celebrity and offers the possibility of him being a celebrity who designs eyewear, plays soccer, and owns a magazine� Das aktuelle Sportstudio ties his activities outside of soccer to his celebrity status, as the New York City footage demonstrates� The camera shows Boateng in a white tank top, sunglasses, white and black baseball cap, gold necklace, watch, Army shorts, and white sneakers in Times Square� The reason for Boateng’s visit to New York City is to meet Jay-Z’s agency, making Boateng the first soccer player ever to promote Jay-Z’s agency internationally� Boateng is not only a soccer player or celebrity, but is trying to establish the brand Boateng internationally, as the black and white footage of a 2015 photo shoot by Berlin star designer Patrick Hellmann suggests� The medium shot is accompanied by the commentator’s words “from a shy Berlin boy to an internationally operating brand�” 33 The extent of his travels makes the international success and marketing of Boateng a compelling case for thinking about the transnational development of sports celebrities in the 21st century� The photo shoot footage paints Boateng not only as a global soccer celebrity, but also suggests that Boateng engages in both dominant male stereotypes and alternative forms of masculinity (Burstyn 45)� While sports in the 19 th century emerged “as an institution of social fatherhood to provide training in manly pursuits-war, commerce, and government,” (Burstyn 45) sexual anxieties (femininity and homosexuality) created the hypermasculine athlete in early 20 th century sports culture� Hypermasculinity is “an exaggerated ideal of manhood linked mythically and practically to the role of the warrior” (Burstyn 4)� Sociologist Eric Anderson argues that “[h]omophobia made hyper-masculinity compulsory for boys, and it made the expression of femininity among boys taboo” (7)� 34 According to Anderson, multiple masculinities develop throughout someone’s life (9)� The focus on traditional masculinity changed, as the emer- Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media 199 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 gence of metro sexuality signifies. First introduced by journalist Mark Simpson in 1994, the term describes heterosexual men who mostly pay attention to their looks (highlighting their vanity and narcissism through consumer products), live in the city, have a high income, and like to take care of themselves (Coad The Metrosexual 19)� Simpson revived the discussion about metro sexuality in 2002 and started to link it to sports culture. Soccer offers “the most visible manifestations of the metrosexual movement,” (Coad “Euro” 126) linking metro sexuality with a lifestyle, not a sexual orientation� Soccer player David Beckham is the “ʻposter-boy’ for metrosexuality” (Clayton and Harris 135) in soccer due to his marriage to former Spice Girls band member Victoria Beckham and “his ever-changing hairstyle and his courageous fashion choices” (Clayton and Harris 135)� 35 Boateng exemplifies the metrosexual lifestyle as well, by paying attention to his appearance, living in big cities (e.g., Berlin, Munich, Lyon), and earning a high income� The black and white photo shoot footage of Boateng in Das aktuelle Sportstudio can be interpreted through various binary oppositions: Black/ white, masculine/ feminine, and German/ foreigner� The photo shoot affirms the possibility of being a Black, German soccer player who loves fashion. The traditional masculine characteristics (toughness, soccer talent, powerful celebrity) are contrasted with his more traditionally feminine qualities, such as dressing well and serving as a styling expert during the show� Host Kathrin Müller-Hohenstein notices Boateng’s talent for style and asks him to guess the name of famous athletes only by looking at their clothes and to evaluate their outfits (00: 58: 00-01: 02: 40). 36 Das aktuelle Sportstudio seems like the perfect medium to promote Boateng not as a soccer player but as a celebrity who plans for his time after soccer, when he transitions to being a designer, fashion model, and style expert� By sensationalizing young Boateng and relegating him in 2016 to a styling expert, the German sports television show Das aktuelle Sportstudio exposes its dependence on celebrity culture visually and content-wise� While Das aktuelle Sportstudio exposes its boulevard-press-like coverage of Boateng, the sports magazines Kicker and 11 Freunde mostly cover Boateng in the sportive context, as seen in the discourse surrounding his dismissal from the national team. Then-German national coach, Joachim Löw, decided not to nominate 2014 World Cup winners Thomas Müller, Mats Hummels, and Boateng for the national team in March 2019. This decision was influenced by the poor performance of the German team during the 2018 World Cup. According to Löw, 2019 should mark a new beginning for Germany with young players (Veth)� Boateng is portrayed in Kicker as an “oldie,” whose time has come to retire� 37 This is contrary to the opinion of 11 Freunde editor Tobias Ahrens, who does not agree with Löw’s decision to dismiss the trio, describing it as a panicked step and pointing out Löw’s radical change of attitude. While the readers’ section as well 200 Sabine Waas DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 as Kicker journalists agree with Boateng’s dismissal, they criticize the timing, manner, and finality of Löw’s decision, calling it a forced goodbye (“Zwangsverabschiedung”) and withdrawal from service (“Ausmusterung”) (Dersch et al� 2)� The militaristic language goes hand-in-hand with the reputation of sporting events in the twentieth century as being “a preparation for military combat and war” (Schiller 2017)� 11 Freunde editor Tobias Ahrens follows the militaristic language pattern by labeling his article “The last service” (“Der letzte Dienst”), however, the overall tone of his article is more favorable towards Hummels, Boateng, and Müller and their accomplishments. While Ahrens describes them as a good investment and deserving national players, Kicker paints them as forced retirees whose masculinities are called into question (“Der Rauswurf und die Reaktionen” 30−1). No reactions from Hummels or Boateng are cited in any Kicker issue. On May 19, 2021, Löw called back Hummels and Müller for the UEFA EURO 2020� Boateng, however, was never invited back� Another rather unexpected news headline made Boateng two months after Das aktuelle Sportstudio in 2016, when he became the target of a verbal rightwing attack from co-leader of the populist party Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany; hereafter AfD)� In 2016, Alexander Gauland remarked that Germans do not want someone like Boateng as a neighbor� Whether Gauland was referring to Boateng’s skin color, his Migrationshintergrund , or both is not clear� In the aftermath of this comment, Gauland attacked reporters for quoting him without his approval and accused them of publishing information from an off-the-record conversation. The reporters denied this charge. Gauland’s remark earned him criticism, not just from politicians from the left, sports officials, and other players, but also from his colleagues in the AfD. 38 While the coverage in mass media was extensive, the sports media mainly ignored the incident ( Kicker ) or capitalized on the incident with funny photo galleries ( 11 Freunde )� 11 Freunde published a photo gallery, titled “Wild Germany,” warning AfD members and voters that there are other famous national players posing as neighbors in Germany, such as Mesut Özil, Thomas Müller, Lukas Podolski, and Antonio Rüdiger. The soccer magazine even went so far as to use the neighbor reference in their headline for a German national team game report two weeks after the incident� “Hallo Nachbarn” showcases a photo gallery of numerous Boateng memes, celebrating his brilliant and acrobatic goal line save against Ukraine during the UEFA EURO 2016� In a similar vein, Kicker tried to capitalize on the scandal by using Boateng with a German flag in the background on its June 2 cover, despite the issue only containing one interview with Boateng and paying minimal attention to the Gauland statement� On the cover, there are three Boateng quotations with one indirectly addressing Gauland saying, “I treat every neighbor the same” Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media 201 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 (“Boateng: Der Weltmeister im Interview”)� 39 In the beginning of the interview, from which the previous quote stems, chief Kicker journalist Oliver Hartmann states that Boateng asked him to keep any discussion of the Gauland quote to a minimum, since at that point it had been subject of discussion for four days� Hartmann only inquires about Gauland in his last question when he asks Boateng if he would rather have Alexander Gauland or his national teammate Antonio Rüdiger as a neighbor (Boateng 5). Rüdiger, just like Boateng, was born in Berlin and has a German father of African descent� Boateng tells the reporter that he treats every neighbor the same, whether Rüdiger or Gauland. The incongruence of Kicker to have Boateng on its cover but only briefly mentioning the Gauland incident shows how a sports magazine can still capitalize on an unexpected conflict that has nothing to do with sports. Such publications also profit from the audience’s assumptions that Boateng will for the first time publicly respond to Gauland’s remarks� There are two major implications inherent in this kind of framework� On the one hand, representing people mit Migrationshintergrund as passive fits into the bigger picture of depicting migrants. According to Daniel Müller’s survey article, German media paints skilled foreign workers in a less negative light than other male migrants, and athletes even positively (100—2)� Celebrity migrants are portrayed as successful because they are integrated, and their success proves their integration (Zambon 218)� On the other hand, Kicker’s Boateng coverage follows similar negative patterns of news reporting as national media, namely treating migrants as objects instead of subjects (even though Boateng is not a migrant)� 40 Although victimization is the dominant representation of migrant women in German national daily newspapers (Lünenborg et al. 105), 41 the clear distinction between aggressor and victim in the Boateng news coverage creates an “us versus them” pattern of dealing with far-right rhetoric� In both incidents (Gauland and the dismissal from the national team), Boateng disengages from the dialogues, which enables the media to paint him as a victim without a voice� This may be due to the nature of the incidents: Boateng was not required to react to his dismissal from the national team or to Gauland’s remarks and therefore he chose to stay quiet and not engage in this dialogue, even though the media and Boateng’s fans would have welcomed a comment� The only other time Kicker reports on the Gauland incident is when journalist Sebastian Wolff trivializes Gauland’s remark as a derailment (“Entgleisung”), 42 marking the incident as emotional rather than political. Wolff also mistakenly attributes the neighbor quote to Andreas instead of Alexander Gauland (37)� 11 Freunde writer Dirk Gieselmann tries to emotionalize the incident by insulting Gauland as a racist (“in unverhohlen rassistischer Manier”) and moral panic generator (“Moral-Panic-Erzeuger”)� While Gieselmann compliments Boateng’s 202 Sabine Waas DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 elegance and his spectacular save in the Ukraine match, he admonishes people to not keep Gauland’s name in the news by hashtags like #nachbarboateng� This is ironic, considering 11 Freunde capitalizes on exactly this� Two out of the three articles about the Gauland incident refer to Gauland’s neighbor quote (“Genug der Nachbarschaftshilfe! ” and “Hallo Nachbarn”)� It seems that Kicker and 11 Freunde , despite being sports magazines, do not shy away from using scandals (political, professional, personal life) to increase their circulation� As a celebrity, Boateng has also frequently made headlines in gossip magazines regarding his alleged infidelities (his affair with model Gina-Lisa Lohfink), legal issues with the mother of his twin daughters Sherin Senler, and the suicide of his ex-girlfriend Kasia Lenhardt. In September 2021, a Munich court found Boateng guilty of assaulting Senler in 2018 and he was ordered to pay €1�8 million, later reduced to 1�2 million� 43 Kicker and 11 Freunde seize the opportunity and cover this sensational news story, that has very little to do with sports, as well (“Vorsätzliche Körperverletzung”; Dinkelaker)� It seems that the news factors such as negativity, unexpectedness, references to elite people, and personification, on and off the field, have gained a greater foothold in the sports media sector examined here� Despite being first and foremost a sports journalist, Michael Horeni writes his Boateng biography as a human-interest story that is more about the analysis of German society and discrimination than soccer� Horeni conducted lengthy interviews with Jérôme, his father Prince, his mother Martina, his half-brother George, former youth coaches, professional soccer coaches, former teachers, and Christina, the mother of his half-brothers� 44 Jérôme’s half-brother Kevin-Prince consented to the publication of only a limited amount of information about himself� While there is no academic scholarship on Horeni’s biography about the Boateng brothers, reviews in Germany’s leading national and regional newspapers mostly praise Horeni’s work� The national newspaper Die Welt labels Die Brüder Boateng the “greatest material for a novel” that German sport has to offer (Kämmerlings). According to Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Alex Rühle, the weakness of the biography is Horeni’s unqualified psychological diagnosis of Kevin-Prince, with whom Horeni met only once for one hour� Therefore, the regional newspaper Der Tagesspiegel rightly describes the work as a mix of psychological study, soccer biography, and society portrait (Bartels)� Horeni’s biography favors a rags-to-riches narrative that emphasizes Jérôme’s class affiliation and Migrationshintergrund to underscore the uniqueness of this soccer celebrity� Horeni focuses on the diversity of Berlin society and two of its main districts: Wedding and Charlottenburg� He connects Kevin-Prince and George to the working-class district Wedding, a social hotspot with an above-average proportion of people mit Migrationshintergrund , and Jérôme to the middle-class Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media 203 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 neighborhood Charlottenburg, a wealthier area in Berlin that is strongly family-oriented� This narrative of the working-class bad boys and the middle-class “good” boy echoes a duality (working-class versus middle-class) that Jérôme also adapted early in his life� While Horeni associates George and Kevin-Prince with toughness (18), Jérôme is tied to more feminine characteristics, such as gentleness, quietness, and softness� According to Jérôme himself, he went home and cried if he encountered too much roughness in Wedding (Horeni 18)� Horeni argues that middle-class, quiet, fragile Jérôme had to become more like his role model Kevin-Prince in order to be accepted by his half-brothers and the residents in Wedding� This decision made him the defensive player he is today and explains his marketing strategy later in his life (which emphasizes his working-classness rather than middle-class upbringing)� Securing affirmation from his family proved easier than being accepted by German society because Kevin-Prince and Jérôme experienced discrimination based on their skin color, most notably during soccer matches in former East Germany, including East Berlin and Leipzig (Horeni 101—2). Since the 1980s, xenophobic and racist slogans and symbols in soccer stadiums have been on the rise. After the reunification of West and East Germany in 1990, racially motivated violence against migrants increased dramatically, including discrimination among soccer fans� 45 The landscape has since changed after the establishment of antiracist fan initiatives such as Fans against Racism in Europe (FARE) and the introduction of the so-called “Ultras” in soccer culture� 46 For Ultras, as opposed to hooligans whose primary interest is violence, the main objective is to show their support in the stadium (wearing the teams’ colors, singing chants, perform choreography, etc�) but also to criticize club leadership and engage in illegal pyrotechnics� 47 People mit Migrationshintergrund have experienced discrimination due to their ethnic roots as studies show� For example, in soccer, players mit Migrationshintergrund are provoked and discriminated more often than other players (Blaschke)� Sometimes they are even punished more severely in sports courts than others (Blaschke). Rainer Geißler identifies the ethnic origin of employees as a key factor in the selection process of some companies (“Migration und Integration”). While Germany needs workers to fill many empty positions as craftsmen, caregivers, logistics experts, and academics in order to compete economically, especially young people with a Turkish and/ or Arab background experience difficulties in the job market, in the school system, and in advancing in their careers� 48 To further address the issues of discrimination, the first comprehensive study that deals with perspectives and experiences of Black, African, and Afro-diasporic people in Germany was conducted under the name “Afrozenus�” In the 2021 survey, almost 6,000 people out of a total of one million people of African origin, who are estimated to live in Germany, participated� 204 Sabine Waas DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 The survey attested that racism is widespread in Germany, whether it is at school, at university, or in the police academy (“‘#Afrozensus’”)� The discrimination and disadvantages that the African or diasporic population face in daily life and soccer align with findings for people mit Migrationshintergrund in general� Horeni and others continue to racialize players mit Migrationshintergrund � In Horeni’s eyes, citizenship by descent ( ius sanguinis ) 49 qualifies soccer players like Lukas Podolski, who was born in Poland to grandparents who had German citizenship prior to World War II, be classified together with other “ethnic” German players (like Beckenbauer) who were born in (West) Germany (58—9)� In contrast, Jérôme, who has a German mother and was born in West Germany, has to fight to be accepted as a German due to his Ghanaian roots. Horeni includes a direct quotation from Jérôme in the biography, highlighting the daily struggles of players mit Migrationshintergrund : “When you play for Germany […] and everything goes perfectly, then people say: ‘Those are Germans� They have a lot of Germanness in them�’ But if something bad happens, […] [t]hen nothing is German anymore” (33)� 50 A similar accusation was made by former soccer player Mesut Özil in his resignation statement from the German national team in 2018, saying, “When we win, I am German� When we lose, I am an immigrant” ( Jones)� Ben Carrington sees this paradox also in Black British athletes who represent England and are at the same time victimized for it (108)� These examples indicate citizenship cannot only be classified as formal (government-granted), but also moral (societally-granted) 51 and circumstantial, shifting with the tides of the team’s success� To adapt to the lack of full acceptance, people mit Migrationshintergrund identify in different ways. George Boateng, for example, sees himself as neither German nor Ghanaian, but rather as a Berliner (a person from Berlin)� The exclusionary effect of the statistical term “ Migrationshintergrund ” separates parts of Germany’s population from the cultural mainstream� As a result, people mit Migrationshintergrund self-identify regionally (e�g�, George) or in Jérôme’s case as a transnational celebrity with ties in Berlin, Ghana, and the United States� 52 This case study shows that entertainment and business industry have been integral parts within the world of soccer, which is reflected in how the German sports media operates and covers news stories� Soccer’s media presence has increased due the privatization of German television in 1987, changing consumption patterns (increasing leisure sector, expanding consumerism, etc�), and new forms of presenting and staging soccer events (focusing on entertainment and show elements)� This is especially visible in the sports television show Das aktuelle Sportstudio (structure and content) and also manifests itself in the news story selections of 11 Freunde and Kicker. Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media 205 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 Commercialization, professionalization, gender role liberalization, and technological changes have contributed to a new definition of what it means to be an athlete and sports celebrity in the 21 st century� Establishing your own businesses, creating foundations, and writing books seems to be the norm rather than the exception nowadays� Players cater to the expectations of male and female fans but also must comply with the expectations of sponsors (team and personal)� While (hyper)masculine traits are still regarded as the epitome of athleticism, discussions of gender and sexuality in society have changed the landscape of soccer celebrity culture, making it acceptable to engage in activities considered more feminine (e�g�, following fashion trends and working as a male styling expert)� Boateng’s media portrayal seems to fit into the bigger picture of sports celebrities like David Beckham� People can connect with the multifaceted Beckham due to his family, soccer, fashion, and financial achievements. Boateng seems to attain similar fame through relationships with models (e�g�, Kasia Lenhardt, Gina-Lisa Lohfink), associations with prestigious soccer clubs (e.g., Manchester City, FC Bayern München), and deals with multinational sponsors (e�g�, Nike)� However, Boateng’s rise is told as a rags-to-riches story from the perspective of a working-class man mit Migrationshintergrund instead of focusing on his middle-class upbringing� Both his rejection by his brothers (transition to working-class traits) and later by German society and media (racism) made Boateng transform from “ghetto kid” to the working-class trendsetter and nowadays “bad boy�” As a result, he can engage with the clothing style of working-class men from an entirely different position. It is Boateng’s ability to utilize his class affiliation and his attempts to turn it into cultural capital that arguably renders his supposedly working classness desirable� Boateng as a brand sells because he is constructed and represented with traditional (toughness, working-class) and non-traditional (fashion sense, quietness) elements of masculinity� However, soccer has become irrelevant for Boateng’s celebrity status� As soon as a player’s brand is established and recognized by the media, the athlete’s status is not dependent on soccer anymore; however, to achieve this, excellent performance on the soccer field as well as a good marketing strategy off the pitch are necessary� Boateng’s case shows how identity markers such as race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and class can be used in favor or against the player to establish them as a German (sports) celebrity� 206 Sabine Waas DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 Notes 1 Television shows such as Das aktuelle Sportstudio , among others, helped soccer’s rise to mainstream culture� 2 Bonuses were paid before 1974, but nothing was ever expected� West German soccer functionaries reluctantly agreed to a 60,000 DM (German mark) bonus for winning the title, which they had to pay after West Germany’s 1974 World Cup victory. German mark was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 to 1990 (60,000 DM would be ~$32,000 nowadays)� 3 Brazilian forward and soccer legend Pelé helped to ignite a soccer boom in the United States in the 1970s that opened the doors for European top players in the Major League Soccer (MLS). Players such as Beckenbauer, Giorgio Chinaglia, and Carlos Alberto came to US soccer clubs like New York Cosmos to play for the remainder of their soccer careers� For his involvement and influence, Pelé was named the Honorary President of the New York Cosmos in 2010� 4 Podolski was born in Poland but emigrated to West Germany in 1987� He is considered an Aussiedler , because Podolski’s paternal grandparents had German citizenship prior to World War II� Özil was born in Gelsenkirchen� His grandfather came to West Germany as a Turkish guest worker� 5 As there is no adequate English translation for ‘ mit Migrationshintergrund ,’ I will use the German term� In 2005, the statistical term “ mit Migrationshintergrund ” was introduced for the annual census of one percent of German households� It was discovered that almost sixteen million Germans have a Migrationshintergrund . The current definition reads as follows: “Zur Bevölkerung mit Migrationshintergrund zählen alle Personen, die die deutsche Staatsangehörigkeit nicht durch Geburt besitzen oder die mindestens ein Elternteil haben, auf das dies zutrifft” (“Personen mit Migrationshintergrund”)� 6 Among the World Cup champions of 1954 were three people who were not born in West Germany: Jupp Posipal (Rumania), Fritz Laband (Poland), and Richard Herrmann (Poland)� But it took the national team twenty more years to let the first non-white player, Erwin Kostedde, start for the Federal Republic� He was followed by Jimmy Hartwig in 1979� Both were children of American GIs and German mothers� 7 Antonio Rüdiger, Jonathan Tah, İlkay Gündoğan, Jamal Musiala, Benjamin Henrichs, Waldemar Anton, Bernd Leno, Marc-André ter Stegen, and Deniz Undav� 8 This could be players like defender Niklas Süle (Borussia Dortmund), who has been nominated for the German national team since 2016� Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media 207 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 9 Andrews and Clift use “stars” as a synonym for “celebrity” in this case� Cristiano Ronaldo would be a good example� 10 In 2016, he was voted “Footballer of the Year” in Germany� This award is determined by a poll of German soccer journalists and the sports magazine Kicker � 11 Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe in the United States were one of the exceptions to the rule� 12 While women tend to engage with celebrity coverage, sports coverage is targeted at men (Bertling 335)� 13 The boulevard media outlet was created in 1952 and its chief editor Peter Boenisch made the change from political to celebrity and sports coverage� It is equivalent to the British “The Sun�” 14 Just how influential national broadcast rights are for sports was demonstrated by the American Basketball Association (ABA)� Founded in 1967, the ABA was extremely popular with fans but struggled financially due to bad business decisions, such as no copyright for the popular, red-white-blue ball, and a lack of television contracts� The National Basketball Association (NBA) finally agreed to a merger in 1976 and picked four out of seven teams (Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers, the New York (later Brooklyn) Nets, and the San Antonio Spurs) to join the league� 15 Paying forty million DM in 1989, the private broadcaster RTL plus bought the exclusive rights to air Germany’s top soccer league, the Bundesliga , during the 1988/ 1989 season� From then on, the rights switched back and forth between private and public broadcasters� This was only possible, because the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) allowed public and private broadcasters to co-exist since 1987� 16 An example for this kind of self would be Elizabeth Taylor’s tweet in response to Michael Jackson’s death, expressing her grief and close relationship� 17 At the end of the show, the invited guest(s) and a person from the audience (who is pre-selected by Das aktuelle Sportstudio for their ability to score a goal or other football skills) are competing against each other at a goal target practice wall� If the challenger wins, the person receives a voucher for the sports company Decathlon� 18 It is equivalent to the British soccer magazine “When Saturday Comes�” 19 Writers May Ayim et al� decided on the term “Afro-German” with the help of African American activist Audre Lorde. In the mid-1980s, texts by Black German writers such as May Ayim and Kartharina Oguntoye, began to emerge in West Germany� E�g�, Farbe bekennen: Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte (1986)� 208 Sabine Waas DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 20 Kevin-Prince played for Ghana from 2010 until 2014, after going through all German national youth levels� 21 In 1965, Johan Galtung and Mari Holmboe Ruge defined a taxonomy of twelve news factors that they regard as determining the selection of news: frequency (when an event follows or fits the publication cycle); threshold (greater intensity is better); unambiguity; meaningfulness (relevance and cultural proximity); consonance (predictability of the newsworthiness of the event); unexpectedness (or rare event); continuity; composition (selection of an event based on the format or content of a newspaper/ broadcast); reference to elite nations; reference to elite people; reference to persons (personification); and reference to something negative (65—71). 22 “Der Mann fällt eben auf, ragt aus der Masse auch gern mal farblich�” 23 In 2018, Boateng, alias “Notorious JB” (a reference to the late rapper The Notorious B�I�G), gives free space to his creativity in a rap video with English actor and comedian Jack Whitehall� It is part of an unscripted comedy series that sees Whitehall take some of the biggest names in soccer out of their comfort zones (Whitehall)� 24 For more information, see, e�g�: Oware; Stephens and Few� 25 Germany actually played and won against Ghana 1-0 in the 2010 World Cup� 26 “Schneller! Gefährlicher! Mutiger! Der härteste Boateng, den es je gab! ” 27 Muhammad Ali is one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time� Rocky Balboa is a fictional character, portrayed by Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky film series. Rocky Balboa comes from a working class Italian American family in Philadelphia. Starting out as a club fighter for a local loan shark, Balboa became a professional boxer� 28 “Jérôme Boateng in: Heimat - Von Charlottenburg in die Welt�” “Geboren in Berlin� Die Wurzeln in Ghana�” 29 “Er wird sein Viertel nie vergessen�” 30 Daniel Craig portrayed the James Bond character on the film screen during that time� 31 The Berlinale is one of the biggest European film festivals, together with the Venice Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival� 32 “Ein Fußballer mit Style oder ein Styler, der auch Fußballspielen kann�” 33 “Vom schüchternen Berliner Jungen zur international agierenden Marke.” 34 Persisting homophobia in the 1980s and 1990s (in part due to the AIDS crisis) gave academics the opportunity to study the relationship between masculinity and sports, with a focus on homophobia (e�g�, Plummer)� Even though the public discourse surrounding the first coming-out of a homosexual German soccer player, Thomas Hitzlsperger, was positive, homosexual- Celebrity and Athlete? Depictions of German Soccer Star Jérôme Boateng in Mass Media 209 DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 ity is still not normalized in professional German soccer� Hitzlsperger came out as homosexual in 2014 after he retired from German soccer� 35 Ellis Cashmore and Andrew Parker argue that Beckham signifies the “ʻnew-lad’/ ʻdad-lad’ (soccer hero, fashionable father, conspicuous consumer— some would argue, all round, cosmetically conscientious ʻmetrosexual’) while still demonstrating vestiges of ʻold industrial man’ (loyal, dedicated, stoic, breadwinning)” (225)� 36 Among those celebrities who Boateng evaluated are former Borussia Dortmund player Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, former basketball player Dirk Nowitzki, former Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel, former teammates David Alaba and Thomas Müller, and soccer icon David Beckham. 37 Reporter Hartmann summarizes his performance as only sporadically world champion-like, even though he helped to shape a decade of international matches (2)� See also “Reaktionen” and Holzschuh� 38 The Gauland statement received considerable mass media attention and served as a point of departure for various debates surrounding right-wing criticism of German players mit Migrationshintergrund � E�g�, Weiland; “Mit Boateng-Trikot gegen Gauland�” 39 “Ich behandle jeden Nachbarn gleich�” 40 Sociologist Rainer Geißler has extensively analyzed the depiction of migrants in German media� They are displayed as criminals and terrorists, burdens for the state, and as “problem groups�” He further points out the predominantly one-sided negative view of Muslims and Islam in the tabloid Bild and the news magazine Der Spiegel , similar to the Time magazine in the United States (Geißler “Mediale Integration” 11—12)� 41 This representation of migrant women depends not only on the newspaper but also on the department, topic, and time of reporting� Gender relations, sexist practices, and sexual violence feature prominently in assessing Germany’s migrant population and in particular male Muslims and people from Turkey (Wigger 266)� 42 It can also be translated as a faux pas or slip of the tongue� 43 In 2023, Boateng won the appeal, resulting in a new trial (starting in June 2024)� 44 Horeni works for the German national newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)� 45 This negative attitude towards migrants and foreigners decreased between 2002 and 2012 in Western Germany but increased in Eastern Germany, according to a study by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (Geißler “Migration und Integration”)� 46 The term and movement originated in 1960s Italy, but it has been used worldwide to describe predominantly organized fans of association soccer 210 Sabine Waas DOI 10.24053/ CG-2024-0010 teams. These fanatic supporters, who have a tendency to use flares, banners, and chants to create an intimidating atmosphere for the opposing team in a stadium, distanced themselves from the violent and racist incidents in the 1990s (Sommerey 53)� 47 The first German Ultra group, “Fortuna Eagles” was founded in 1986 and in support of the soccer team Fortuna Köln (Sommerey 61)� In 1993, fans, fan clubs, and magazines formed the first anti-racism organization in Germany, called Bündnis Aktiver Fußballfans (BAFF), which is part of the FARE network� The relationship between hooligans and Ultras has been a strained and culminated in hooligan attacks in 2007 (Bremen) and 2008 (Essen) (Brunssen and Claus 159)� 48 Twice as many people mit Migrationshintergrund are unemployed (compared to Germans without Migrationshintergrund )� Twenty-six percent of the Turkish population has no high school diploma and forty-five percent has the Hauptschulabschluss , the lowest education degree in Germany (Noll and Weick 3)� 49 The 1913 Reichs- und Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz (citizenship law) took the father’s nationality as the deciding factor for determining the child’s citizenship. Only from 1975 onward could the mother influence the child’s German nationality� It took the German government until the year 2000 to revise German citizenship law� The territorial principle ( ius soli ) allows children, who were born in Germany to non-German parents, to acquire German citizenship under the condition that at least one of the non-German parents had resided legally for a minimum of eight years in Germany (Diez and Squire 568)� 50 “Wenn du für Deutschland spielst […] und alles läuft positiv, dann sagt man: ‘Das sind Deutsche� Die haben viel Deutsches�’ Aber wenn etwas Schlechtes passiert […] [d]as ist dann alles nicht mehr deutsch�” 51 Using the Netherlands as a case study, Willem Schinkel looks at access to citizenship among migrants and presents citizenship as a chance for migrants to choose to belong to Dutch society (moral citizenship)� According to Schinkel, citizenship is tied to people adhering to practices of the dominant culture and becoming an “active citizen�” In addition, people who want to become or already are formal citizens must show their loyalty to be considered a “good citizen�” The chance for migrants to show their loyalty involved in moral citizenship is the ultimate goal for immigrants (17—22)� 52 The concept of transmigrants goes back to Glick Schiller and Szanton Blanc, who define them as individuals who have “multiple relations-organizational, religious, and political-that span borders� Transmigrants take actions, make decisions, and feel concerns, and develop identities within social networks that connect them to two or more societies simultaneously” (Schiller et al� 1—2)� Celebrity and Athlete? 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