I was tagged by @stoppingtosmelltheflowers to do the following tag game, thank you for tagging me, Becky!
“Reblog with the meaning/origin of your url, your favourite colour and tag at least 5 people who put something on your dash that made you smile.”
Man, I really have been around tumblr since 2012 and never changed my url, haven’t I? It’s been a while since I explained it, so here I go: Seventeen and three are referring to two of my favourite football players of all time who used to wear these numbers while playing for the German national team: Per Mertesacker (#17, played there from 2004 to 2014) and Arne Friedrich (#3, played there from 2002 to 2011). They had both been centre backs and had been paired up as main defending duo for the first time at World Cup 2010 and I was absolutely enchanted by their relationship and dynamic. They hadn’t appeared to be very close beforehand, Arne said he didn’t have “many friends in the football business anyway”. Per was supposed to be the leading defender (”Abwehrchef”) due to having shown top performances on club level, while Arne had been often used out of position as full back in previous years and was relegated with his club before the tournament, so it was assumed he wasn’t in his best shape, thus the dynamics were SUPPOSED to be like this: Per carrying the defence, while Arne would be there due to being an experienced senior (being five years older). However, things turned out rather differently: Arne THRIVED in that tournament, displayed a great sense of confidence and brilliance, even scored his first and only goal EVER and, at times, hat to cover for Per’s mistakes as well - they were pretty supportive of one another, didn’t grow tired to underline that in interviews (”I told him that I can write novels about media criticism and that I’ll always be there for him - also, if he wants to, he can play on the left side too, haha.”). They were pretty touchy feely too on and off pitch, heck, there were several media articles back in the day pointing out that “the time they spent hugging on the pitch felt particularly long” and I simply couldn’t get them out of my head. Per even attempted to steal the ball for Arne after he had scored his goal, but wasn’t allowed to do so... It was endearing. After the tournament, they were both riddled with a lot of bad luck with their clubs, health wise and never got to play alongside each other in the NT ever again and Arne even had to retire early... Years later, during WC 2014, Arne visited the team and told Per specifically how he believed in him and we all know how that turned out. <3 Today, as they have both stopped playing actively, they’re both working at the clubs they had spent the most time playing at - and they’re actually making DEALS with each other in exchanging youth players, it’s absolutely glorious that after all this time, all the set backs and the distance, they both achieved happiness and actually do refer to each other as “friends who value each other” and my love for that can never be put into words.
My favourite colour changes every now and then, but I’d say it’s currently petrol.
I know that many have already done this game and I can’t even list all the people on my dash for have been making my days a lot brighter in recent months, so all I’m gonna say is: Please feel hugged and feel free to do this on your own, I’ll be looking forward to everyone doing this. <3