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John Golla

Photo:

Marco Wolf / wolf-sportfoto / IMAGO

The German handball players are currently making the country's sports headlines.

During the important win against Hungary, over eight million viewers sat in front of the TV sets, and the players were once again enthusiastic about the atmosphere in the hall.

Now the semi-finals at the home European Championship are close again.

Not far from the arena in Cologne, where the DHB team is currently playing its games, one of the many demonstrations against right-wing extremism and for strengthening democracy took place last Sunday.

The players around captain Johannes Golla welcome this development.

"I'm happy to see that and that so many people are standing up," Golla told SPIEGEL.

»It feels like the country is going in a direction that is unpleasant and should not be repeated.

These pictures show that people do want to stand up and do something about it.

I got goosebumps just looking at it.”

The demos were triggered, among other things, by reports from the research network “Correctiv” about meetings between AfD officials and neo-Nazis.

It is also said to have been about planning a “remigration” of German citizens with an immigration history.

The German backcourt player Renars Uscins was born in Latvia.

Coach Alfred Gislason comes from Iceland, but has lived and worked in Germany for decades.

No specific action planned

»It's not such a specific issue for us in the team that we say: So-and-so wouldn't be with us for these plans.

But of course we talk about what’s happening in the country and in politics,” said Golla.

The 26-year-old also commented on the whistles and boos for the top German politicians around Chancellor Olaf Scholz during the Germans' preliminary round game against North Macedonia in Berlin.

»I have to honestly say that we found that frightening.

That’s what concerns us.”

Nevertheless, no concrete action or statement from the German players is planned before or after the upcoming games in Cologne; the tight schedule with games every two days does not allow for that.

In addition to the media appointments, training and video training, he would be happy to go for a coffee in Cologne, said backcourt player Christoph Steinert when asked.

»We generally see relatively little daylight.

I couldn't read that much, but of course I saw the pictures from Cologne and Hamburg," says Steinert.

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