Schweinsteiger 'the logical successor' to Lahm, says Beckenbauer

[yamair.livejournal.com]

The former defender believes the Bayern midfielder is the clear candidate to take up the armband for the national team over team-mate Manuel Neuer or Dortmund's Mats Hummels.

Bastian Schweinsteiger is "the logical successor" to Philipp Lahm as Germany captain, according to iconic former defender Franz Beckenbauer.

Lahm opted to retire from international football after leading his side to World Cup glory in Brazil this summer, having first taken up the armband for the finals in 2010.

Schweinsteiger was vice-captain to his Bayern Munich team-mate in Brazil and Beckenbauer believes the 30-year-old is the obvious choice to take up the armband.

"Schweinsteiger for me is the logical successor to Philipp Lahm," he told Bild. "He's a leader, he won a lot of sympathy for his incredible versatility in the World Cup final.

"The whole team is raised by such a fighter. And, as deputy to Lahm, he knows the captain's role already."

Beckenbauer feels Mats Hummels would be the ideal deputy to Schweinsteiger, while he claims Manuel Neuer would not be the correct choice given his position on the pitch.

"[Hummels] should be vice-captain to Schweinsteiger. Neuer is a great personality, but a coach prefers an outfield player as they can better influence the action," he added.



He's been in Ibiza for the past few days, looking very hot.





How could he possibly be denied?

I've just seen that the all star game is on at around 2am! I'm going to have to give that a miss, probably download it the next day.

Source

What were the previous objections to Basti being captain? I've read that he was considered "too emotional" and stuff about not being the right type.

Comments

[yamair.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that he speaks a bit slow, but I can't tell any other difference. I'm going to start paying more attention. Are those interviews on the net? Youtube?

I wonder if Muller's accent is as noticeable as Basti's, or is this something specific to Basti and his town.

[lokrur.livejournal.com]

It was part of the big Audi sport interview with Basti (the one where he talks about Kahn stealing his towel) - old classmates and coaches talking about him. It's on youtube (in three or four parts). It's been a while since I watched it so I don't remember in which part those interviews were.

I'm not sure about Müller's accent, they do all have regional accents to some degree.

[eva]

Müller's is different, but about equally as noticeable, I'd say. It shows itself in other sounds than Basti's. He can however switch on a very strong rural-sounding Bavarian (complete with required swearing), like when he pranked the reporter. I don't think Basti has that.

I don't think any of their accents should be a problem regarding the captaincy, though. They clearly can speak Hochdeutsch, and (mean as that is) their accents aren't of the type that makes one instantly go "uneducated person". It's not a true dialect, just some traces in certain sounds. With Basti, I notice it most in the "r"; with Müller it's the "r" too (although in a different way), but also some of the vowels.

Some dialects are strong like that. I know a university professor who is instantly identifiable as a Swabian by his vowels even though he speaks great Hochdeutsch. In general, our relationship to dialects is tricky. Some are perceived as uneducated, and someone who can't switch between dialect and Hochdeutsch will might have professional disadvantages. I myself speak Hochdeutsch exclusively, and that definitely can be used to intimidate people, while always making one sound a little bit from elsewhere.

[yamair.livejournal.com]

So when he pranked that reporter, he was also putting on an accent. See I wouldn't know if you didn't say.

This makes me wish that when at school, I'd taken German instead of French. I've always liked it, but I think at the time I thought it would be too difficult.

[eva]

He wasn't putting it on, I'd say; I suspect that's how they speak in the village he comes from. Quite a few somewhat educated Germans can switch like that, from a dialect to Hochdeutsch or something close. It might be needed too if you speak to people from other regions, as some dialects are hard to understand at all. I have a friend who speaks good Hochdeutsch except for a few consonants and a few grammatical traces of his original dialect. Then we heard him talking to his relatives on the phone, and honest to God, we could understand about one word in two.

The local dialects in the area I come from are weakening, so there are plenty of people like myself who don't speak them at all. My father shed his without a trace when he went to university. Now that he's moved back to his birth village again, I see it come back a little, showing itself in certain expressions.

You know, it isn't too late to learn German! ;-) I've just decided to get at least a little Dutch, because when I was in Belgium I could read pretty much all the museum signs anyway by triangulating in on them from German, English, French and Latin, but couldn't pronounce anything. I've started the basic Dutch on Duolingo, and while it's a bit weird to do it from English rather than German, it looks quite useful.