From kissing bear to bogeyman
Today is Alaba 28 and has won everything: Champions League, World Cup, nine championship titles – he also qualified for two European championships with Austria. He has been named Austria’s Footballer of the Year seven times and Sportsman of the Year twice. Neither Hans Krankl nor Herbert Prohaska succeeded in doing this. All the more astonishing that the Bussi-Bear became a bogeyman.
There are reasons for this: Wanted in the national team Alaba prefers to play the violin as a midfield director instead of bustling up and down the left defensive side in his regular position. And precisely during the Corona crisis, he put the knife on his Bavarians, demanded “appreciative” dealings; In other words: a multi-million dollar raise. Has the most successful Austrian footballer of all time gone megalomaniac?
In personal encounter, the light figure is a reserved man who says little, but smiles conspicuously nice. Marko Arnautović raves about silicone breasts and reveals sins of youth, Marc Janko becomes profound. Alaba does not tend to either. For a long time he has refused to conduct large-scale exclusive interviews. A 20-minute online press conference a few days ago had to be enough to clarify the most important thing: Bavaria was “grateful for everything”, but was now looking for “a new challenge”. It also became clear: Alaba has become a size too big to have a casual chat.
He is the golden donkey among the domestic sports greats, has lucrative advertising contracts with adidas and Coca-Cola. His earnings were last estimated at 1.25 million euros – per month. Eight million people follow him on Facebook alone (tennis superstar Dominic Thiem only has 384,000). He owns luxury properties in Kitzbühel, Vienna and Munich. Its market value is 55 million euros.
Everything started small – in the Wiener Vorstadt at SV Aspern. Moved at eleven Alaba to Wiener Austria, at 16 to FC Bayern, where he rose from being a baby to a world-class player. Alaba appeared in lederhosen, ate veal sausages, lifted beer mugs. Alaba and Bavaria, that was like Peter Alexander and “Schnurrdiburr” – but in the end more like Rainhard and Andrea Fendrich. The War of the Roses was publicly fought after 13 years together. Alaba’s divorce lawyer is called Pini Zahavi, 77, an Israeli players agent who was described as a “greedy piranha” by Bayern honorary president Uli Hoeneß. Zahavi helped Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich take over Chelsea FC and handled the $ 222 million record transfer from Neymar Jr. to Paris Saint-Germain. He’s been for a year Alaba active. Zahavi is not a classic consultant, but is considered a brutal negotiator. One that you get for the big coup.
Alabas has graced the front pages of Transfer Poker for weeks. The Bavarians tried Alaba to make you look greedy. Alaba accused Bayern disrespect. “Even before Corona,” he said, a contract was presented to him, “where I was really not given recognition and appreciation,” he criticized. AlabaRumor has it that he wanted to earn what the best on his team deserve. Absurd numbers haunted the sports gazettes: Alaba is said to have asked for an annual salary of 20 million, his club only offered 17 million (including bonuses). Bayern emphasized that they had gone to the limit of financial pain – and withdrew the offer. Now the golden boy can even change without a transfer fee. The millions that FC Bayern would normally have collected will probably end up in Alaba’s pockets.
Alaba’s popularity stems from his boyish innocence. Hard fee negotiations don’t fit into the picture. In public he appears as a religious man who wears T-shirts with the inscription “My strength lies in Jesus” and grew up in the spirit of the Seventh-day Adventists, a Protestant free church that is faithful to the Bible. There is now a lot of ridicule in internet forums. Its power would be “in the euro”, they say.
The bling-bling gene
Alaba’s closest advisory board consists of his father, the Nigerian native George, his Filipino mother Gina and his sister Rosemaie, who is two years his junior. David’s parents prayed with their children, read the Bible, and observed discipline and values such as respect in their upbringing. A bling-bling gene was also apparently inherited. Father George made a career in the 1990s with the dance-pop duo “Two in one” and landed at number two on the Austrian charts. Mother Gina, a nurse, won the “Miss Philippines Austria Beauty Contest” in the 1980s. His sister also made it under the name Rose May Alaba already in the charts as a singer. Mother Gina has long since quit her job in a nursing home, father George is his son’s full-time manager. David once said proudly that he had “the ambition and the great will” from him. “Only those who dream big have a huge perspective,” says David himself.
Dreams mostly become reality with the Alabas. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester City, Paris SG – the most prestigious clubs in the world apparently want to sign the 28-year-old. Alaba is one of the best defenders in the world. For years, however, he has been emphasizing “that I see my future in midfield”. Five years ago he was “convinced” that he would be promoted to midfielder in Munich. father Alaba was therefore repeatedly presented to the Bayern bosses to demand a midfield place, writes the well-informed German “Sport Bild”. Defenders are seen as background dancers in the football business, have fewer fans and earn less money. The stars are called Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappé – all of them offensive artists. At SV Aspern, the little one should Alaba Have scored 90 goals in one season. At Wiener Austria he was trained as a midfielder, at Bayern the last time he was transferred from his defensive position on the far left to central defense and appointed as head of defense.
Only Marcel Koller, as team boss, heard Alaba’s wishes; his performances in midfield could not keep up with the world-class performances in defense. He was “only international class” as a midfielder, but “world class” as a left-back, judged a long-time team-mate in an interview with profil. Blackmail rumors circulated in the media: Alaba only come to the team if he was in midfield, it was said. Koller and Alaba denied, but a video supported the rumor. In the game against Ireland in 2017, TV images made it appear as if they were resisting Alaba the team boss instruction to move into defense. “David refused and stayed in midfield,” commented ex-colleague Paul Scharner. After the failed European Championship, the mood in the country turned against Alaba. The public criticized that he did not put himself in the service of the team. A little later, Bank Austria exchanged its advertising face: Instead Alaba Since then, tennis professional Dominic Thiem has been beaming from the posters.
Alaba had already won everything at the age of 23 and was even called “God” by trainer guru Pep Guardiola. Shortly before the Euro 2016, other players noticed his special position. He was still polite, but noticeably more self-confident. While the players on bus rides usually listened to their music with headphones, dived Alaba with a roaring ghetto blaster. “We screamed: turn it down,” said a team-mate at the time, “but he did his thing.”
On the other hand, he did not assume the expected leadership role. Although he is part of the team council, “he almost never said anything”. Even on the field, his presence or absence often makes no difference: Of the 16 compulsory internationals, the Alaba has missed so far, ten have been won and only four lost. Commentators and reporters criticize the former sweetheart unusually violently. After the European Championships, “Krone” columnist Michael Jeannée attested him “embarrassing stumbling around in midfield” and even described him as “stupid”. Just before that Alaba still in the circle of local reporters joked with his German press man that he had nothing to fear from them, “they come from me.” Now he realized that this is no longer the case and withdrew from journalists.
Advertising message “Everyone wants Alaba“
Was Alaba has to say today, he is sharing it with an audience of millions via his social media channels. His future planning can be followed in real time anyway. Real Madrid would offer 110 million gross for a five-year contract, the Spanish “As” wrote last. The “Marca” even reported the transfer as fixed. father Alaba immediately denied; there are “many interested parties”. Transfer poker has become an unpaid XXL advertising. From the message “Everyone wants Alaba“The player, who is also a branded company and runs his own fashion label and online shop, benefits.
In Munich was Alaba Loved for a long time, even rose to “the absolute boss” within the team, as ex-colleague Sandro Wagner says, and has won all the titles worldwide in the last few months.
The Austrian traditionally maintains an ambivalent relationship with his soccer heroes: Toni Polster was labeled stupid August, Marc Janko as arrogant, Alaba as money horny. On the other hand: Which domestic footballer has ever been courted by the world’s best clubs? “David can choose which top club he goes to,” stressed player advisor Max Hagmayr to profil: “And then it’s all about the money and the duration of the contract.” And apparently still for the longed-for midfield place. As reported by “Le Parisien”, should Alaba added a condition to a “specific offer from Paris SG”: he wants to play in midfield. Thanks to the logic of the market, Alaba’s midfield dream would dissolve anyway: The game as a central defender requires less leg work, which minimizes physical wear and tear in old age and could still enable a million-dollar contract after the million-dollar contract.
With all the malice that Alaba Last got: He doesn’t deliver any scandals, always gives 100 percent on the field; those who have known him for a long time describe him as down-to-earth, familiar and correct. The fact that the tough contract negotiations became public naturally did not fit the Alabas into the picture. One atout remains in any case: In front of the cameras, he knows how to use the spotlight perfectly. Like the Champions League final a few months ago between Bayern Munich and Paris SG. Alaba not only left the field as the winner, but also comforted the crying Brazilian world star Neymar Jr., hugging him tightly. More is not possible: Alaba as a benevolent winner big in the picture – exactly as one would prefer to present him in the family business: as a divine golden boy.
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