This is what a football spring dream looks like: The sun shone over the training ground at the Frankfurt Arena, the national players and their coach exuded joy and lightness, even if Hansi Flick had to give the strict teacher from time to time due to his position: quality passes!

Don't let up!

But that Tuesday morning, he too was happy to be back on the pitch with his team.

Christian Kamp

sports editor.

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The balls whizzed by, the players toiled and joked, and the Makkabi Frankfurt children's team, which was invited to the upcoming friendly against Israel on Saturday in Sinsheim, didn't have to go home without a Thomas Müller joke.

"You see," he called out to his teammates after he had threw a ball over the goal, which then, after a long flight phase, ended up sinking into a mini-goal.

"Always an extra plan!"

lightness of football

There was something innocent about her, the lightness of being a footballer, as if everything else that happens in the world had just taken a break.

Flick had already spoken of the privilege of being able to continue in this profession on Friday.

But it should be clear to the national players, somnambulistic moments in a world that is no longer the same for them as soon as they leave the pitch.

At lunchtime, Oliver Bierhoff was sitting at the press conference in the team hotel in Neu-Isenburg, and all of a sudden all lightness was gone – and instead he felt the full heaviness that lies over this year for the national team.

Although Bierhoff tried to sketch the timetable up to the World Cup in November from an aspect of (anticipatory) joy, he also said: "It's difficult how much you can look forward to in the current world situation." What is currently happening in Ukraine , also put the time in the sign of the corona virus into perspective again, he said.

Fundraiser game day for Ukraine

"Our thoughts are with the people, we are in solidarity with them, that's what concerns us." As a concrete aid measure, the German Football Association (DFB) is calling for a donation match day this weekend, down to the youth and district level, money should be raised be collected, the association and the foundation of the national team want to top it up again by up to 200,000 euros.

On Saturday at the international match, the "Peace" sign should be omnipresent, on the players' jackets and on the advertising boards, for example.

A specific action by the team, said Bierhoff, has not yet been planned.

One thing is certain: The national team will not only have to show top performances in 2022 in order to conquer the World Cup title, Bierhoff and captain Manuel Neuer reaffirmed the goal on Tuesday.

In this geopolitical annus horribilis, it will be more closely monitored than ever, also in terms of responsibility and role model role.

The question of what is appropriate, what is authentic, what springs from a real personal impulse and what perhaps just follows an abstract sense of duty, all this will haunt the players at every turn, not only in the matter of Ukraine.

Human rights situation in Qatar

This was also shown by Bierhoff's remarks on the topic that was the fixed point of awareness of the problem until four weeks ago: dealing with Qatar, the host of the World Cup with such a miserable reputation.

Educational work was on the national team's program on Tuesday evening.

Representatives from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were invited to discuss human rights, and Bernd Neuendorf, the new DFB President, and Secretary General Heike Ullrich were also expected - to be continued, with a specific examination of the situation in Qatar, as Bierhoff announced: "We want to give us a deeper picture”.

Captain Neuer welcomed that: "We've also had tournaments in recent years where there were problems.

Accordingly, it is good if we are better informed than we used to be.”

You could also understand it like this: In the past, not everything was always as well-founded as the DFB liked to portray it.

And even now the question remains what the association, what the national team will do with the knowledge.

There is no easy answer to that.

Bierhoff reported that during his previous visits to the emirate he had many discussions with the German ambassador, with representatives of the International Labor Union (ILU) and the Qatar Foundation.

He therefore claimed to see things in a more differentiated way, and that should also mean: not only with a "purely German perspective".

He was told that "things had been tackled" in Qatar, also through the influence of the World Cup, and he demanded that this shouldn't stop at the end of the tournament.

But he couldn't avoid addressing the limitations of his perspective.

Whenever the national team took it onto difficult terrain, they always managed to get close to the people in the respective places.

"That," he said, "is more difficult here because contact with the locals is very restrictive."

It shouldn't be the only thing that's harder.

If you are not mistaken, the home crowd has also reached a point where they see football with different eyes – and with different expectations.