After DFB director Oliver Bierhoff, Hansi Flick has also clearly backed the national player in the vaccination debate about Joshua Kimmich.
“He does not belong in the pillory,” said the national coach in the FAZInterview: “I find it regrettable that this discussion is now being carried out on his back, it has not passed him by without a trace. What is currently happening to him in the discussion is wrong and unfair.”
Flick would have “wished for much more objectivity” in the entire discussion. For him, “boundaries would be exceeded when people are insulted and placed in a certain corner where they do not belong,” said the 56-year-old. After all, Kimmich is “not a corona denier” and does not belong “to lateral thinkers and conspiracy theorists”.
The midfielder of the German record champions Bayern Munich questioned everything and always wants to know and understand all the connections: “And sometimes it takes a while until he has finally formed his opinion.”
However, Flick also emphasized that “it would be optimal and desirable if every player were vaccinated with us”. The national coach himself has been vaccinated: “And I also supported the DFB vaccination campaign ‘Referee, I’ ve already given yellow ‘out of conviction.”
Flick pointed out, however, that there is “no compulsory vaccination in Germany”: “That is why everyone has the right to make their own decision. Many people have certain concerns.”
Flick wants to take up the vaccination issue “again
He sees the need for a vaccination in “other professional groups even higher”. For example “with the medical professionals, with the nursing staff, with teachers or educators. But even in these professional groups this is not the case”.
With his players, however, Flick will “take it up again”. That will happen “not only in front of the assembled team, but also in a one-on-one conversation, very personally”: “If someone has worries, we will try to take them away from them.”
The decision to vaccinate is “private”. But it has “effects that go beyond the private sphere, which can possibly play a role in the decision. Basically, you are always a national player. And so you also have a role model function. We stand for certain values, for openness, tolerance and respect “Diversity. However, this also creates expectations that cannot always be met,” said Flick, who referred to Kimmich’s “We kick Corona” initiative: “To experience now how quickly public opinion can change is one thing for Jo new and amazing experience.
But Kimmich has “a strong character”. If he does get vaccinated, it is not relevant for him “whether others portray him as a dump”.
Before Flick, Bierhoff had already supported the 2017 Confederation Cup winner. He had “no understanding that Joshua is now being publicly pilloried,” said Bierhoff image.
