Mönchengladbach (Germany) (AFP)
Three players, including Marcus Thuram with a spectacular gesture, paid tribute this weekend in the Bundesliga to George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, who died after his arrest Monday in Minneapolis in the United States, during a 29th day when all the leading teams have so far won.
A double, and a knee on the ground for several seconds after his first goal: Thuram, the French striker of Mönchengladbach, recalled that football was not outside the world, by evoking the memory of George Floyd whose death has sparked protests in the United States and around the world.
The son of the 1998 French world champion Lilian Thuram, himself engaged in the fight against racism, made no comment on his gesture. But just after the match, Mönchengladbach's club posted a photo of their player, knee on the ground and looking down, on Twitter, with the caption in English: "No explanation needed" ").
The "Foals" won 4-1 at home against the Union Berlin, behind closed doors as in all matches since the post-coronavirus resumption of football in Germany.
- "Justice for George" -
In Dortmund, it is the striker star Jadon Sancho, 20, author of a hat-trick against Paderborn (6-1), who unveiled after his first goal a t-shirt bearing the inscription "Justice for George". The same sentence that American Schalke 04 striker Weston McKennie had written on an armband he wore on Saturday in the 1-0 loss to Bremen.
On the field, the four top-5 teams entered this weekend won, and while the final sprint is underway, the fight for qualification for the Champions League is by no means settled.
Germany is entitled to four direct qualifiers for the queen competition: Bayern Munich having already (except in the unlikely event of a collapse) been assured of its place, three places remain which are contested by four clubs: Dortmund (60 pts), Mönchengladbach and Leverkusen (56 pts each) and Leipzig, 55 points but one more game to play Monday evening in Cologne (8:30 p.m., 6.30 p.m. GMT).
Dortmund responded brilliantly to Bayern's 5-0 victory over Düsseldorf the day before. Borussia went on to win 6-1 on the lawn of the Paderborn red lantern, and recovered mentally, five days after the 1-0 defeat in the Klassiker against Bayern.
- Sancho super-star -
Sancho, the 20-year-old English striker, star of Borussia this season, had been handicapped by an injury and had only entered the break against Munich, without succeeding in reversing the match.
Against Paderborn, he was titular and made his class speak. He scored three times (57th, 74th and 90th + 1). Thorgan Hazard opened the scoring (54th). Achraf Hakimi (4-1, 85th) and Marcel Schmelzer (5-1, 89th) participated in the celebration. Paderborn saved the honor by Uwe Hünemeier (72nd).
Sunday, Mönchengladbach also unleashed lightning against the unfortunate Union Berlin, which has not yet deserved. The architects of the victory were the two French strikers Marcus Thuram (two goals) and Alassane Pléa (one goal and the two assists in Thuram).
This season, the French pair is the key to Mönchengladbach's success: Pléa has scored 10 times and delivered 11 assists. Thuram now also has 10 goals on the clock and 8 assists.
The Rhenish club, surprise team of the season, even remained at the top of the classification more than two months in autumn, at the time when Bayern was stuck in the crisis which led to the dismissal of Niko Kovac and the arrival on Hansi Flick's bench.
© 2020 AFP