Cool and fantastically unspectacular, historical and visionary: the physical exercise editorial team at taz presents good books and films from 2022.
Protagonist of a warm-hearted trainer biography: Wolfgang Frank in the service of Kickers Offenbach Photo: Jan Hübner/imago
Andreas Rüttenauer, editor and columnist “Culture Bag”: “We went out and played football” is the name of the book in which Andreas Bernard describes his childhood and youth as a football player in Munich (Klett-Cotta). This is so heartbreakingly unspectacular that one would like to write a book about one’s own football youth. Better not, you can’t do it much better than Bernard.
Frédéric Valin, columnist “Heroes of the Movement”: “Wolfgang Frank. Der Fußball-Revolutionär” (Werkstatt) by Mara Pfeiffer is a warm, precise, multi-layered portrait of the man who Jürgen Klopp says was a visionary who opened the eyes of all of them.
René Hamann, freelancer and friend of physical exercises: In “What makes teams successful” (Rowohlt), Tobias Escher explains the current state of hyper-capitalist professional football without getting really political or investigative. Why not. His book is entertaining nonetheless.
Volkan Ağar, fellow contributing editor and friend of physical exercises: “FIFA uncovered” is the sports series of the year because it creates an understanding of the big picture. In four episodes, she tells the story of world football’s governing body and its failures along the major world developments.
Alina Schwermer, employee and columnist “Erste”: Not quite from 2022, but still great: new football cinema from Latin America. For example, the documentary “La Fortaleza” about young hools in Colombia and the feature film “90 Minutos” with four short football stories.
Bernd Müllender, columnist “Eingelocht”: “The World Cup and I” (M/ELEVEN). Beautiful reviews of the tournaments from 1954 and controversial Qatar debates with great texts by Eichler, Schlemmerl or Reng (including self-exposing self-congratulations from tabloid colleagues).
Martin Krauss, employee and columnist “About Ball and the World”: Not sure if I can credit Alina Schwermer, “Futopia” (workshop). After all, she is a colleague and friend. Otherwise I’ll name the second best book: Peter Dreier/Robert Elias, “Baseball Rebels” (UNP). It’s also very good.
Elke Wittich, columnist “Erste”: “Werder under National Socialism” (workshop) not only recounts the history of the club during the years that are still often skipped in company, club and city annals, but also tells the little-known life stories of Jewish club members.
Johannes Kopp, Editor: It is not surprising what the ARD documentary by Hajo Seppelt and his team “Abuse: Sexualized violence in German swimming” shows. But always shocking, especially the silence of those who know. Important research and a good impetus not only to dig deeper and ask questions at this point.
Markus Völker, editor and columnist “Olympyada-yada-yada”: “Winning Games”. If you want to know why 1980 was somehow better (or cooler?) than 2022, you should definitely take a look at this basketball story.
