One can start by stating that, as usual before a championship, a plethora of songs, European Championship magazines and podcasts are produced.

This year, there will also be two detective stories with a football theme in connection with the European Championships.

But the three examples I have chosen can give new perspectives on the European Championship summer.

The social entrance - find your football friend!  

"That Victory is banal" is an email exchange between the artist and author Carl-Johan De Geer and the sports journalist Johanna Fränden.

Here, football is an entrance, of course the rise and fall of the Super League is discussed, but it is just as much about De Geer's problematic artistic life during Corona and Fränden's life as "Hemingway woman" on the continent.

An involuntary selfie with Cuadrado is given as much space as the issue of cultural appropriation. 

The interesting thing is that it shows football as a social putty, something that builds relationships across generational boundaries and that serves as an entrance to a conversation about life and death.

My tip: feel free to read the book, but above all make sure to book an EC friend, start an SMS thread and drive! 

The philosophical perspective

In the book "A small book about football, democracy and building a society", the author and playwright Niklas Rådström argues that football is an exercise in Democracy.

Two large groups stand against each other with diametrically different input values ​​- afterwards both must be able to accept the result.

In order to be successful, you have to cooperate, take advantage of the team's differences and get organized.

Just like democracy.

Both are also circular in nature - you get a new chance in the next match or the next election. 

The dramaturgical perspective

But if you really want to understand the greatness of a championship, you have to approach it like any other story.

Then you need a main character, a protagonist, someone you can identify with. 

A good place to start the site theplayerstribune.com where athletes write themselves (probably with the help of a skilled editor) in I-form.

A kind of Summer in P1 in text format for big stars. 

Before the Champions League final, the German defender Toni Rüdiger wrote a text about how growing up in Neukölln in Berlin marked his path to the stars.

A text that describes how he was exposed and handled racism in the football world.

A gripping against all odds story - but also an important story about the present.

But, and this is a bit of the point.

Toni Rüdiger could just as easily be the villain in your European Championship story.

Because in the Champions League final a month ago, he tackled Belgium superstar De Bruyne, who had to leave the match with two facial fractures. 

In addition, he plays in a black mask!

A real hero, or a real villain, our dear Toni Rüdiger. 

So, as the good democrat you are, now send a mess to your EC friend, take your new main character in hand and the EC summer will be the big adventure it can be.