The Dietmar Hamann Bridge Phenomenon

Back in 2005 the London Development Agency (LDA) and Transport for London ran a competition to name a footbridge that would lead from Wembley’s town centre to the new Wembley Stadium. In the first round people were asked to send in their suggestions from which a panel shortlisted five names people could vote for. Normally this is the type of news that would have passed me by completely unnoticed if it wasn’t for an e-mail a friend send to me and to the rest of his address book. This e-mail offered you the chance to pick on the English, outlined the competition and provided a link to the LDA website where you could send in your suggestions. It also asked you to suggest the name “Dietmar Hamann Bridge”. Dietmar Hamann is an ex-German international midfielder who happened to score the last goal in the last competitive match in the old Wembley Stadium when Germany beat England 1:0 in a World Cup 2002 qualifier. Now of course I felt obliged to honor the German-English football rivalry and voted for Dietmar Hamann Bridge. Though I wasn’t expecting that this little campaign would have any serious impact on the competition. As it turned out Hamann was the most nominated name “by some distance”. And a little research on Google revealed that this campaign had been busily making its round through German blogs and boards of all sorts. Fans from Scotland, Australia, Ireland, Wales and New Zealand also ran similar campaigns. All of which got politely ignored by the panel who created the shortlist. In the end the bridge was named White Horse Bridge and Dietmar Hamann received an honorable mentions in the White Horse Bridge Wikipedia article.

I think that where some fans failed other fans actually succeeded. Which in return makes most internet popular vote based awards redundant and ridiculous. I first had to think back to the Hamann incident after the World Cup when Portugal was voted to be the “Most Entertaining Team”. A very disputable result to say the least. Now the German tabloid Bild ran an online poll to vote for the best player of the season. Much to the surprise of all the experts it wasn’t Diego that received the honors but Dortmund’s Alexander Frei. I guess Steven over at the Dortmund Blog will be happy to hear this and Frei actually played a good season for his team. But it simply can’t be disputed that Frei wasn’t the best player. I wouldn’t even have expected him to make it into the top three. Anyway, the Bundesliga players have set things straight and voted Diego to be their MVP. And you can go on and do the same in the official Bundesliga Blog MVP vote.

	Who is your player of the season?
	Diego (Werder Bremen)
	Diego (Werder Bremen)
	Diego (Werder Bremen)

Category: 1. Bundesliga, Backstory, Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen

Tags: Alexander Frei, Backstory, Borussia Dortmund, Bundesliga, Diego, Dietmar Hamann Bridge, Dietmar Hamman, England, Germany, Portugal, Rivalry, Wembley Bridge, Wembley Stadium, Werder Bremen, World Cup

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