The 2024 European Championships will be played in Germany but they have a second host, Turkey: in the group stage, in fact, the most numerous fans in the stands were those with the red flag and the crescent (130 thousand), followed by the Germans, stuck at 125 thousand. The estimate was published by various sports newspapers and confirms the impression of any viewer who attended the matches of group F: a red tide pushed the national team led by Vincenzo Montella against Portugal, Georgia and the Czech Republic. Turkey is a country of 83 million inhabitants and in Germany there are three million inhabitants of Turkish origin. It is impossible not to notice how strong the connection with the land of origin has remained for the migrants, who arrived in the 1950s from the poorest provinces of central southern Anatolia, but also for their descendants up to the third and fourth generation young people. Added to the local outposts are the many fans who left Turkey, who took advantage of the European Championship to visit more or less distant relatives in Germany and support the national team. In recent days the cities in which Turkey was playing have been invaded by red Turkish shirts and even, in both Dortmund and Hamburg, at the end of the match the traditional Turkish song ‘Memleketim’ (my land) by Ayten Alpman. The same mobilization is already underway in Leipzig, where the highly anticipated eighth-final match against Austria is scheduled for Tuesday at 9 pm. The national team captained by Hakan Calhanoglu is not the favourite but has the certainty of a stadium that will once again be on its side. After the success over the Czech Republic that was worth the pass to the eighth finals, the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Montella and the team to congratulate them and promised that he will try to fly to Germany to attend a match.
In German cities, communities of Turkish origin took to the streets to celebrate with dances, songs and carousels: in almost every center there is ‘a corner of Turkey’, mostly neighborhoods where shops and markets bring back the atmosphere of Anatolian cities, but also of Istanbul itself, as is the case of the Kreuzberg district in Berlin. Many young people born in Germany from mixed and non-mixed marriages who feel German “but also Turkish”, often support both a Bundesliga team and a Super Lig team and today form a large part of the ‘red tide’ that is invading Germany. To understand the level of connection, completely mutual, between the two populations and the football schools of the two countries, just read the squads available to the two coaches. They play in Germany Emre Can and Deniz Undav and the captain of the Mannschaft is Ilkay Gundogan, originally from the city of Kahramanmaras. A choice which, according to a recent survey, has sparked some controversy among the increasingly numerous Germans who would like a “whiter” national team. Controversies and polls that the technical commissioner Julian Nagelsmann he branded it as “xenophobia”, preferring to focus on the pitch and remember that football must unite and not divide.
In the Turkish national team there are several players born in Germany, but who have chosen to wear the shirt of the country from which their grandparents or parents came. Not only the Inter midfielder and captain Hakan Calhanoglu, but also the goalscorer Cenk Tosunthe former Sassuolo Kan Ayhan, Salih Ozcan and also the Juventus star, Kenan Yildiz, they were born and educated in Germany. For Turks, having their own Turkish footballer playing for Germany is a source of pride. Many Turks rejoiced when Mesut Ozil became world champion with Germany at the 2104 World Cup in Brazil, despite years of controversy from those who never forgave him for not wearing the jersey of his parents’ country. Gundogan himself, who became captain of the Mannschaft, makes many Turks swell their chests, proud to see a son of their lands represent one of the strongest national teams in the world at the highest level. Always available to give interviews strictly in Turkish, for the people these footballers are the demonstration that you can be both Turkish and German.