Tom Kallweit

🇩🇪 Jürgen Klopp is planning a conversation with Felix Nmecha following the criticism the latter has faced for his celebration against Elversberg Background: After scoring both goals in Dortmund’s 2-1 win over Elversberg, Nmecha performed his crown celebration. The gesture is associated with the evangelical network “Ballers in God” (BiG) and its campaign “The King’s Return.” According to investigations, including one by ARD’s Monitor programme, parts of the religious community hold homophobic and anti-LGBTQ+ views and describe abortion as “Satan’s plan”. LGBTQ+ organisations classify BiG as Christian fundamentalists. Dortmund’s Fan and Supporters’ Department strongly criticised Nmecha over the weekend and called on the club to clearly distance itself from evangelical networks DFB sporting director Rudi Völler commented on the topic: "Of course, there's freedom of religion and freedom of belief. Everyone is free to practise their faith in their own way. Some people like it, others don't. We'll speak to him about it again, because it has now become a public topic. The most important thing with a topic like this is to first understand it properly. The proper procedures for dealing with these matters must be ensured. So far, I can only say positive things about Felix. He did an outstanding job at the World Cup, not just as a footballer, but also in the way he conducted himself between games. He is very popular among his teammates and is a thoroughly good person. But I can understand the debate and that not everyone agrees with it. As I said, we'll handle it in a similar way to Dortmund – we're in contact with them. But we shouldn't make too much of it either. We will certainly speak to him about it." [via @BILD]