Fritz Walter Stadium

Number two, I'm in Karlsruhe here, which is actually rival territory for VfB Stuttgart.

And then in terms of who I am, I myself was born in Kaiserslautern in the shadow of the sacred Betzenberg, so I identify personally as a Pfälzer.

However, my German father is very much of Swabian stock, and it gets a little bit murky once you get here into Karlsruhe, because Karlsruhe is considered Baden, whereas Stuttgart is considered more Wettenberg.

But there's plenty of Swabian overlap along both places.

Let's go right back to the start.

How did you come to support Kaiserslautern? Is it a lifelong inherited passion, or was there a specific moment that pulled you into the Betzenberg? And I do apologize, I might butcher some names.

[laughs]

[laughs] Well, to be from Kaiserslautern, uh, is to have Fritz Walter, uh, in your blood.

Uh, if you're born in the shadow of this amazing stadium that sits on the Betzenberg hill, uh, there really is no other stadium like it in the world.

Uh, it just sort of thrones over the city of Kaiserslautern, which is only a city of about 50,000 people.

But all around in the Pfalz and Deep Pfalz, uh, there's a, a great deal of membership and support for Kaiserslautern.

Although I have to say when I was a kid it wasn't a very, very big rivalry.