Sports and Shows

I was never a big football fan as a child - at least not that I remember. At home we often watched the European Championship or the World Cup, but I don’t really recall watching any league matches. By now I know my dad is a fan of Eintracht Frankfurt.

Interestingly enough, my parents told me that my oldest fan scarf is almost as old as I am, and that it’s been mine since the day they got it. Nowadays I take it with me every time I go to a pub to watch that team.

It’s not surprising that this team is also my favourite, mostly because I was born in that area. For a few years I even had to drive past the stadium on my way to school. I really liked the match days, coming home and seeing a sea of red and white hats.

Fun fact: I broke up with my first boyfriend because he wouldn’t shut up about his favourite team (the city rivals) being better, West Berlin being better than East Berlin, his music taste being better… you name it. We were teens; I don’t mind anymore. But I hope the dude found a girl who likes his team. I recently found a picture of him and me with… his favourite team scarf nailed to my wall. lmao

Anyway. I didn’t care about football for many, many years. I was busy with, well, being homeless and living my life.

By now, I’m fully back to loving football. Every weekend without seeing my favourite team is a wasted weekend. If there’s a World Cup, I mainly cheer for Germany, but also for the countries of Union players.

(scarves: 6 / attended matches: 1)

Some of you may ask how I came back to football after years of no interest. To answer that question, keep reading.

After my time being homeless, I moved to Hamburg, Germany. I had already spent some time there before moving into a flat. And being homeless in Hamburg means visiting the Reeperbahn / St. Pauli very often - you probably guessed it already - the club and the district are pretty close to each other. I should mention that punks in general like the club very much for its anti-racist / antifascist image.

I met a lot of St. Pauli fans, and my best friend invited me to pubs to watch matches. You really can’t be on the Reeperbahn during a match day without seeing at least some snippets of the game.

Over time, I found myself enjoying football again. I couldn’t wait for the next weekend.

And then Union was back in my mind. I decided not only to be a Union Berlin fan, but also to support and regularly watch St. Pauli. I live there, my friends like them, their image is really strong. So... Yeah. Forza St. Pauli!

(scarves: 4 / attended matches: 3)

I can’t really say much about Southampton FC, as I’m not able to watch any of their games at the moment. I don’t know any fans or anyone who lives in Southampton. But I want to live there one day. I won’t be able to share my love for my German teams with anyone in England - or at least not go to a pub to watch a match.

That thought was kinda scary. But then I realised, they also have a team! I silently support them too, and I follow their transfers and how they rank in the league.

And phew, the past few years… what a journey. But that’s the thing about teams I like: once I decide to love them, I don’t care about the league or the bad days - I just love them.

(scarves: 0 / attended matches: 0)

I also have a few clubs that I am personally friends with.

Some of them purely because I have friends which are fans:
Eintracht Frankfurt, Fortuna Düsseldorf

As well as some clubs where I like them for some weird reason:
BVB, Schalke 04, KSC

And even a club where I just decided to like them:
FC Auggen

Like most football fans, I also have some teams that I don’t like. Mostly because of simple rivalry, others because of politics. Some because of past events between fans. And a few because I had bad interactions with their supporters.

RB Leipzig
My biggest issue is with RB Leipzig. I don’t really care to repeat their history here. Just google them. Corporate club.

Hansa Rostock
They’re like that stupid fly that always comes way too close to your face. Fans with racist views, hooligans without a brain, always destroying toilets…

Hertha BSC
Remember the story about my first boyfriend? Yep, Hertha BSC is Union Berlin’s rival. I don’t mind them much. Sometimes I even watch their games. But they’ve been so arrogant in the past.

HSV (Hamburger Sport Verein)
Where to start..? I’ve had physical fights with their fans twice, they’re St. Pauli’s rivals, and I’ve met some very racist fans (but also some really nice ones, to be fair). I just don’t like them. They’re arrogant too. Whenever someone posts anything about (north German) football, their fans flood the comments.
(scarves: 1 / attended matches: 3)

VfL Bochum
Just google the incident where a Union fan threw a lighter at their keeper. I’m not saying it was a good move from my fellow fan, but their (now former) keeper should really go to theatre school.

Portsmouth FC
Obligatory.

Imagine sitting on your sofa with a hangover. Last night, you had one drink too many and now your eyes feel dry, your mouth stinky even though you just brushed your teeth, and you're happy to keep your meal inside yourself. It's Sunday evening and the internet connection doesn't work. What else to do? Being creative? Not in that state. Reading? Lmao.

Correct answer is watching TV. Which I did. But unfortunately, I couldn't find any movie or series that I liked. Comedy Central showed the same old stuff again, RTL had the same old action movie on display. And then, there's sports. American Football to be precise. Nope. Continue searching...

But after I clicked through my channels about 100 times, I settled with American Football. And how much I hated it. It was boring, repetitive and just not interesting. I kept it on, but my eyes were glued to my phone.

Fast forwards a few weeks, and the same again. Hungover, dry eyes, nothing on TV but American football.

And then, just like that one drink you never liked, but want to taste again suddenly, I found myself wondering if American football was on TV. And sure it was. And I watched. And the next weekend, I did it again.

After a few times I thought about which team I should support. As you may already noticed in the soccer section, I'm more of a team supporter than just watching a league. But which?

I remembered the first game I watched. The commentators always said something about the German game, as in it was a NFL game hosted in Germany. And I looked it up. Now I had to choose between Buccaneers and Seahawks. In theory it should've been the Buccs.

I like pirates and ships and stuff. But (please don't hit me) I didn't like Tom Brady - another reason why I didn't enjoy the first game. He was with the Buccs. Easy decision.

(scarves: 1 / attended matches: 0)

And so it happened that I really started enjoying American football. Soon enough, it was time for the Super Bowl. I wanted to go to a party for it. Surely an event like that would be interesting to Germans too, right?

And it was! A Super Bowl party near the Reeperbahn for if I remember correctly a 20€ entry fee. I bought tickets for me and a friend. That friend simply didn’t come. He’s not my friend anymore. Not for that reason, though.

So I picked up one of my acquaintances, who was still homeless at the time. He fell asleep during the game, but that was fine. In Germany, the Super Bowl is often at midnight.

I’m somehow still talking about American American football (which is a weird sentence). But how did I end up with the Hamburg Sea Devils?

The party was hosted by them. Simple as that. I was a little uncomfortable when I saw the mascot of HSV (mentioned earlier in the soccer section). But since I now knew that the Sea Devils existed, I started following the ELF. It’s the European League of Football - with mainly German teams.

In 2024 (July 17th), I attended one of their matches. Unfortunately, we lost. It was interesting to watch, though. The only thing that bothered me was that it was in the HSV stadium, which is called Volksparkstadion.

In 2025 there were some problems within the league, and I haven’t followed it much lately. I have to wait until the next season to see what’s going on there now. I think the Sea Devils are still part of it.

(scarves: 0 / attended matches: 1)

I don't really care for rivalry in the NFL. I have literally no clue. So everyone who does, should be aware that this might come across as rage bait.

It started with one or two players and ended with liking the whole team. At least to some extent.

My story with show wrestling is pretty similar to my story with American football.

I never liked it. I didn’t care for guys (and gals) fighting with each other. In 2024 I watched some of it with friends I was visiting. It was boring. I had never been in contact with it before, and I thought that was it.

In 2025 I started being friends with someone again. And he did like show wrestling. Whenever I visited him, you could be sure he had either wrestling, soccer talk, or anime on his TV. And so it happened that I watched a few shows with him. Out of boredom (and because I was having a really bad time), I kept asking him about WWE and who all the characters were. And somehow it just started to feel nice watching it. I got into the stories and the fights.

Still, it was just a side thing - something I wouldn’t bother spending time on at home. That would change soon.

During a festival I met some guy. He was pretty handsome. I invited him into my tent. But then he started to be weird. Not in a “this needs a trigger warning” kind of way, just weird in what he was saying. I wanted him to leave, but he didn’t want to. So I pulled him out of my tent, and it ended up in a fight. Sorry, camp neighbours!

My friend (mentioned earlier) was in his own tent at the time. He saw all of it. I did a DDT on the guy. He left with a bleeding nose, cursing something. Mind you, I only weigh 40 kg / about 88 pounds. After that I always asked my friend, “Was that a DDT? Is that a DDT?” when we watched WWE.

I should mention that I now understand the warnings about not doing the stunts at home/school/wherever. My ribs killed me for weeks. Do not try this at home!

And with that, the starting points of liking WWE and show wrestling were checked off.

I watched SmackDown every week after that. Then in December I also started to watch RAW and NXT more often.

Even though I love WWE and my favourite wrestlers are usually on there, I eventually got into AAA.

Thanks to Rey Fénix, Axiom and Pentagón Jr. I liked the Highflyer style. As a result, I quickly stumbled across luchadores.

I don't speak a word of Spanish, but I've already started learning different languages several times and I've been relatively good at learning them, so that might change.

Besides, you don't necessarily have to speak a language to recognise a good fight.