It’s a good hour of time for the kick-off of the Rhine-Main-match between Mainz 05 and Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday of last week. Klaus Hafner sits in the catacombs of the Mainz stadium on a chair and waits for the beginning of its use, in a red training jacket, on the breast of the coat of arms of his club. The 64-year-old announcer is so good, his health is deteriorating, so he needs this calm before the storm.
Daniel Meuren
sports editor.
F. A. Z. Twitter
Hafner activity is collected for its Moderation, when he gets in because of time. Because people come in and want to at least shake hands or have a little chat. A large part of the player from Mainz 05 is on the way to the cabin at “the Klaus” for short, the turndown, but also of the Eintracht Frankfurt will be one or the other Controller holds.
“Klaus Hafner is unique and something very special in the League,” said Eintracht sporting Director Bruno Hübner. And Eintracht adds CEO Fredi Bobic: “He has brought in a very own way as a stadium announcer. To start with, as he greets the opposing coach and how he allows that the away fans are chanting their team’s formation. This contributes to the fact that the visiting teams feel at home in Mainz.“ As Bobic hear that Hafner can play after the end of the current season after three decades and well over 500 championship and the 250 Cup and the test-circuit power, he expresses Regret. “That’s a shame. The Bundesliga is lost. He belongs to the family.“
Even Neuer and Hummels to say goodbye in person
So cheesy, and sometimes even in Fifa circles to be cynical, this term is occasionally used in football, if you watched play Hafner before or after the home, then think again a little more to the Good, even in large multi-million business division of the Bundesliga. As recently FC Bayern was in Mainz, took the national goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, to say goodbye personally to him. “The Manuel actually knew that it was my last game against Bayern,” says Hafner. “There are very many good guys in the League and especially in the case of the Bavaria, which holds always so quick to arrogance.” Mats Hummels came in person to him. Hafner knows Hummels, as his father as a youth – and short-term, second-League coach, has worked in the 05ern and the small son to Play with. Hafner a piece of the League, the transfers after this season, after the last eight Bundesliga home games, is.
the Freiburg stadium announcer Claus Köhn is no longer on the active microphone. “I made this as a Fan of Mainz 05, I always thought of myself as a twelfth man who may represent all the other followers to talk on the microphone,” he says. It’s just eight games, has missed Hafner in all the years. two of them, after a stroke two years ago, when, not least, motivated the job as a stadium announcer for him to disciplined rehabilitation work.
The Mainz coach Sandro Schwarz is certainly that Hafner had his own share of the upswing of the club. “He is a legendary stadium announcer. I’ve seen him already as a small Fan, and later as a player and now as a coach,“ he said. Was “just at the time when Jürgen Klopp, coach, that was a one-two pass between him and Klaus. If ‘Kloppo’ had the feeling that the Fans have to come, then he took Hafner with his inimitable view into the visor. Then, Klaus has taken to the micro-something, so that the audience is going on.“
