Toothpaste trip has Augsburg coach cleaning up his own mess
AUGSBURG head coach Heiko Herrlich will miss today’s Bundesliga restart after he broke lockdown rules to buy toothpaste and skin cream, writes SAM DEAN.
Augsburg’s match against Wolfsburg was due to be Herrlich’s first since his appointment as head coach in March, but he has now been barred from the game after breaching the German league’s strict quarantine rules.
Herrlich’s untimely error comes as Germany legend Lothar Matthaus warned players they must remain “disciplined” as the world turns its attention to German football. Herrlich accepted he made a “mistake” in leaving his hotel, where the team had been quarantined, after detailing his trip to a local supermarket.
“We are in quarantine in the hotel and aren’t really supposed to go out,” he said. “However there are situations which just require it. I had no toothpaste, it was running out, and no more skin cream, and then I went in my training uniform to a supermarket.”
Herrlich explained that he had left his face mask in his room and went back for it, and how he had to ask a cashier to change a €20 note into coins so he could use a shopping cart.
He said he then forgot the shopping cart and had to go back to collect it.
Matthaus, who made 150 appearances for Germany, said that this weekend’s return to action marked a “special moment” for football as he urged his countrymen to set an example for other leagues. “It is a special moment for football,” he said. “When the Germans can do it well, everybody can do it. The discipline is very important, not on the field but outside. They have to follow the rules.”
One of the main attractions will be Jadon Sancho, the England winger who had enjoyed a sensational season for Borussia Dortmund before the suspension. Sancho is on the radar of Europe’s top clubs but Matthaus hopes the winger will stay in Germany.
“We want him to stay in our league because he is one of our best attractions,” Matthaus said. “He is one of the best things we get from England.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)