East Eats West: Chinese football player

Chinese football player

Picture: Migrant football worker in Switzerland.

With the EURO 2008, the European football championship, in full speed, Zurich, as one of the host cities, is full of football fans. After two matches we Swiss are already out of the championship and euphoria has subsided somewhat. I have to admit that I do not like football at all (too many pretty sissies on the field). Nevertheless I visited an interesting exhibition in the Helmhaus Museum in Zurich. By the title “Balls and Brains” the museum invited artist to look at football from different angles. Besides the mandatory pictures of sweating Beckham and Rinaldo the exhibition sheds a light on corruption and crime in football. Another interesting aspect is that many “Swiss” players come from African or Eastern European countries and football seems to be a big career opportunity for them. However, I was surprised to learn that the Swiss BSC Young Boys (sic!) football club got a player from China! Shi Jun He is playing in Switzerland since 2005 and even speaks German by now. It seems that football can be an exclusive way of integrating foreigners into Switzerland and giving them a career opportunity.

The exhibition is still on. Further details can be found here: http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/internet/zuerichkultur/home/institutionen/home/redirect_hh/helmhaus/home.html

Picture: I was always wondering about that ("Does male perspiration smell differently? Does homosexuality exist in football?")