Midfielder Enzo Millot from VfB Stuttgart got a tattoo before the important away game at FSV Mainz 05.
The 20-year-old flew in a tattoo artist from southern Spain three days before the game and posted a picture of them on his personal Instagram account. Due to the predominantly negative comments from his followers and some VfB supporters, he took the post offline again a short time later.
“He’s a young lad who has to be aware that something like this has an effect on the outside as well as on the inside, which is definitely not in his interest,” commented Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß on the case. Millot had not informed VfB about the action in advance.
At the same time, Hoeneß announced that he did not want to overstate the matter. “I noticed and moderated it. We also have to leave the church in the village. It wasn’t a drive with alcohol in the blood.”
Sports scientist Ingo Froboese emphasized to the Picture-Zeitung also the possible consequences of a tattoo in the sports business: “It is negligent and irresponsible. Such an intervention leads to a performance limitation of the athlete. The immune system has to fight with it for at least 14 days.”
VfB Stuttgart, currently in seventeenth place in the table, is deep in the Bundesliga relegation battle. A win against Mainz is essential next Sunday if you don’t want to be relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga for the third time in a short space of time after 2016 and 2019.
