Michael Becker, Manager of Germany's World Cup Soccer Team Captain, Claims "Gay Players" Stopped Team from Going to Finals

Michael Becker, manager of Germany's national team captain, Michael Ballack, claims "gay players" stopped team from going to World Cup finals.

I usually read the online version of Germany's Der Spiegel and I was surprised when I came across an article, "Ambassadors of a New Germany," about the national soccer team and the fact that some were upset they didn't make it to the final round of the World Cup because of all "the gay players." It's never good to criticize the game, much less to point fingers at any one person. Well, Michael Becker, manager of the team's captain, Michael Ballack, seems to have not learned that it's just not cool to cast blame over a loss. Newser's Mary Papenfuss reports puts it succinctly:

The manager for the captain of Germany's national soccer team has blamed "gay players" for the nation's failure to capture a World Cup title, sparking a firestorm of criticism. Michael Becker, who represents captain Michael Ballack, scoffed at the "bunch of gays" on the World Cup team in an interview with. Becker attributed the team's more elegant and agile play to their homosexuality, and said that style over German teams' more traditional aggressive approach cost the athletes a place in the World Cup finals.

Shameful. Still Becker didn't stop there. He went on to blame everyone else, except Ballack, for the team's problems.

He (Becker) talked a lot about people who were envious of his client, because they were supposedly mediocre, ugly, untalented, bureaucratic, provincial, unmanly or gay. He told me some unbelievable stories, which I wrote down on my pad of paper. Becker didn't seem to mind, perhaps because he assumed that they would never make it into print anyway, or that they were already common knowledge. A few days later, on the sidelines of a farewell match for footballer Bernd Schneider at Bayer Leverkusen, Becker told a group of agents and journalists in the Bayer clubhouse that there was a former player on the national team who was about to go public with the names of "the gay combo." I expected my fellow journalists to be all ears, but they seemed relatively blasé about Becker's remark. It seemed that every sports journalist was already familiar with the alleged homosexual conspiracy swirling around German coach Joachim Löw's team. The rumors accompanied the team to South Africa. They are apparently part of the package. Source

Wow. Seems like this guy is speaking for Ballack, who must share some of these views. It is a shame that the team has sunk to such a level. Since when does one's sexuality influence how one plays on the soccer field?