Wen should he just allude? Norbert Misskampf lets his eyes fly over the field, then he spreads his arms helplessly and calls out: “No one is standing here!” The minutes are ticking off the clock, Misskampf’s team is hopelessly behind. He will later say: “It’s been a long time since we played as badly as we did today.” The SC Opel Rüsselsheim soccer players scored six goals at the end of the game. And have to accept 18.
However, the result only plays a secondary role in “walking football”. Fun and health are much more important. “Walking Football” is intended for people who, because of their age, no longer want to or can’t wear themselves out in sprint duels on the outside line. And who want to keep the risk of injury as small as possible.
“Returned from the Couch”
The twelve men who smile at each other on the artificial turf pitch of SC Opel Rüsselsheim are called Michael, Heinz, Jürgen or Andreas; on average they are a little over 60 years old. Almost all of them have played football for decades, according to the traditional rules. Until their bodies wouldn’t allow it anymore.
Now they are wearing yellow jerseys and black pants and are standing in a semicircle in front of Volker Rothenstein, who is demonstrating stretching exercises. Warming up before the private game against SG Ober Höchststadt from Kronberg. Airplanes roar over the sports grounds, somewhere a bird is chirping. “Peter, is that okay?” Rothenstein asks, straddling, “with the sole on the ground?” “If I have to,” whispers Peter to the comrade next to him.
“Walking Football” has been played at SC Opel Rüsselsheim since the beginning of 2020. Board member Jürgen Gelis learned about the sport from cooperation partner Borussia Dortmund, which originated in England in 2011 and has become a popular sport there. The association now has around 25 active members. “Many have not played football for years and have returned from the couch,” says the 61-year-old Gelis.
Running – with or without the ball – is forbidden in “walking football”. One foot must always touch the ground. Intense physical contact and sliding tackles are also not allowed; the ball may not be played higher than one meter. In the event of violations, there is a free kick for the opponent, whistles are not uncommon. Goalkeeper and offside do not exist.
There is no permanent goalkeeper in walking football.
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Bild: Mauritius
The game is usually played with six against six over four times ten or 15 minutes. At three meters, the goals are as wide as in handball, but only one meter high; the playing field is usually hardly larger than the penalty area of a large field. The DFB stipulates a minimum age of 55 for official games.
Shortly before kick-off, the men from SC Opel Rüsselsheim stand in a circle. tactical briefing. “Burghard has a magnet in his stomach, everything bounces off it,” says one laughingly on the one-man defense. But after just a few seconds the ball is in their own goal.
“Always on the move”
At 68, Norbert Misskampf is the oldest player at SC Opel. He started playing soccer when he was nine; later he broke his ankle and tore both menisci. Four years ago it was no longer enough for the old men either. Then he read about the new department in Rüsselsheim in the local newspaper.
“I also go walking, but it’s very monotonous,” says Misskampf. “Walking Football” allows nice moves, and of course you want to win. “But it’s not morbid ambition, it’s just a lot of fun.” In the game, precise passes are particularly important. It’s not easy to resist the temptation to run into failed passes. Despite this, he often breaks a sweat during training, says Misskampf, “you’re always on the move.”
On the edge of the field, Werner Abraham observes what is happening. He is a member of the Committee for Leisure and Popular Sports in the Hessian Football Association (HFV); his home club FC Germania Leeheim was the first club in Hesse to introduce walking football in November 2018. Since then, Abraham has been driving through the entire state and promoting the sport in clubs: “No matter where I’ve been before – they didn’t want to stop.”
“Unbelievably Beautiful”
In the meantime, 40 Hessian clubs operate “walking football”, including Eintracht Frankfurt. The teams from Bundesliga clubs like Bayer Leverkusen, Schalke 04 and Eintracht Frankfurt take part in international tournaments. Abraham thinks it is conceivable that at some point there will also be a league in Hesse. He finds it “unbelievably nice” that older people can kick football again through walking football.
The coach’s speech at SC Opel after the first quarter of the game shows just how ambitious they are: The positional play and the lack of pressure on the opponent are criticised. “They play one-touch football, we can’t keep up,” said Jürgen Gelis, paying tribute to the Kronberg team.
Walking football has been played in Ober Höchststadt for a year. Gangolf Hirt played in a regular team for a long time, then he realized: “By the time I turned once, the others had walked around me four times.” On television he saw a program about “walking football”. He promptly formed his own team. Does sport also benefit your health? The 68-year-old describes it like this: “My dog no longer runs away from me when I walk with him over the hills in the Taunus.”
