Thomas Müller has been in Canada for some time now. So what does he think of football in North America? Speaking to German news outlet Kicker, the former Bayern Munich star shared his observations on the beautiful game in the USA and Canada.
“You must separate two different things,” said Müller (via Bundesliga commenter Derek Rae on Twitter). “Football here still has no big significance in the life of the general population. It’s not spoken about in the office on a Monday morning.
“But the football
bubble is not in fact so small. In the stadia there’s euphoric atmosphere. The people are interested in the game. The rest of the population doesn’t know the football bubble at all. They have other topics & sports.
“They grew up with ice hockey, basketball, and (American) football. The ranking of football is perhaps comparable to handball in Germany. Due to the topography in Canada, there are significantly fewer football pitches than ice hockey rinks.”
Müller went on to say that, despite all this, “In the playoffs our stadium was packed with 50,000 spectators.”
As for whether he could remain in Canada after his playing career, the Raumdeuter was unequivocal: “I can imagine in the future always coming back to Vancouver, but I’ll definitely be returning to Germany, where my roots are so very deep. I have a very high regard for life in Germany.”
