King Ribéry and Kaiser Franck

By: Jan | August 14th, 2007

Bavaria has a king again. That’s the slogan greeting pedestrians passing by Munich’s Theatiner Church. The church is currently undergoing some restoration work and the scaffolding is used for advertising to help refinance the project. The company with the swoosh seized the opportunity and the current hype surrounding Ribéry to promote him to the rank of king. First and foremost a brilliant little marketing coup, given the fact that adidas is a traditional Bayern Munich sponsor and even owns 10% of the club. And as this flickr photo album by airmax808 shows, they even went so far as to equip the local souvenir shops with Ribéry postcards, where he now resides right in the middle of Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle and King Ludwig II. That’s where things get complicated.

The picture is inspired by a famous painting of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He wasn’t the last king of Bavaria, but probably the most popular and famous and a troubled soul, who died under mysterious circumstances. A very eccentric and reclusive person at the same time – often hiding in one of the many fairy tale like castles he built. Most famously Neuschwanstein, a must-see attraction for every self-respecting Japanese tourist. All his life he struggled to come to terms with his homosexuality, which until recently would have been the only thing connecting him with some professional footballers of today.

Now, Franck Ribéry has been presented as his official heir to the throne. Or rather heir to Bavaria’s last king Ludwig III, two generations later, but more in spirit to Ludwig II, in the sense that he enjoys similar popularity and sympathy ratings as the Swan King. Something that didn’t go well with the Guglmen. A secret society with a not so secret website, and self-proclaimed keepers of the Bavarian monarchy. As you expect from a secret society, they spent the last hundred years or so in secrecy, mostly wasting their time promoting members from Novices to Ecuyers or Connétables to Sénéchauxs through otherworldly rituals at secret locations. Every other Friday is casual Friday though, giving members the chance to meet in an informal atmosphere at an undisclosed bowling alley to knock down some pins and pints. Here and then they might release a statement to the press, claiming that Ludwig didn’t commit suicide, but was indeed victim of a conspiracy. Setting things straight concerning Ludwig’s death and restoring his honour, which they think has been demolished through the suicide theory, has been the Guglmen’s only purpose in life until the Nike advert came along. According to them the ad is ‘distasteful’ and ‘the people behind Nike and Franck Ribéry should be careful, that they won’t be haunted by the king’s curse.’ A rather metaphysical threat.

But reinstating Ribéry as king of Bavaria also produces some real life problems. Not so much for Ribéry but for Germany’s other football monarch. Kaiser (emperor) Franz Beckenbauer has so far reigned supreme over anything football related in Germany for roughly 40 years. The rank of Kaiser also guarantees him to be one step above the king. Though, the French have their ways to rid themselves of unwanted monarchs just to replace them by an emperor again a few years later. A scenario the French sports daily L’Equipe already projected for Germany in a recent issue. So Franz, beware!