Video: Frankfurt Fans sing the Pippi Longstocking Theme

By: Jan | December 10th, 2008

 
Actually, they just sing “schalalalala” and then “Hey Eintracht Frankfurt!” followed by more “schalala”, but they do it to the tune of the Pippi Longstocking theme (German “Hey Pippi Langstrumpf!” version, English Maude Flanders Christian summer camp version, cool original Swedish version). And they are doing it quite well, while jumping up and down at the same time – as indicated by the wobbly pixels.

The man standing in the foreground acting calm and unexcited is Frankfurt’s coach Friedhelm Funkel. He’s been doing that (the calm and unexcited thing) for a few years now, establishing the team in the Bundesliga at the same time. Half of Frankfurt’s team comes from Greece, the other half is made up of some interesting young players like young Czech international Martin Fenin. The team had a rocky start to the season, but is now heading towards mid-table mediocrity again. Frankfurt’s “Villa Villekulla” is the Waldstadion, which you can also call Commerzbank Arena, because it helps pay for the expensive rebuilding of the place.

If all of that got you excited you should drop by Ollie over at our brand new:

• Eintracht Frankfurt Offside

Category: 1. Bundesliga, Eintracht Frankfurt, Videos

Tags: 1. Bundesliga, Eintracht Frankfurt, Friedhelm Funkel, Pippi Langstrumpf, Pippi Longstocking, Ultras, Videos

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• diana |  December 11th, 2008 at 12:35 am

  
  
  

  Until you said it Jan, I had only know Eintracht Frankfurt’s stadium as the Commerzbank Arena. But in regards to what the Eintracht fans were singing, I take it Pippi Longstocking is popular in your country?

  I have to admit, until I heard about Pippi Longstocking on Deutsche Welle, I do not know anything about it. Or maybe again, it has to do with when the books and the TV adaptation came out. I actually checked it on Wikipedia. Considering what I had always considered Sweden’s best exports (in random order) – the musical group ABBA, furniture company IKEA (they have a few branches here) and um, Swedish meatballs.

  All the more I have a father who is not afraid of saying that he likes listening to ABBA in his teenage years (though it is more towards his later teenage years when ABBA first became famous through the Eurovision song contest). Considering I actually first grew up listening to songs from my parents’ younger days, apart from what I listen on the radio, I also ended up listening to ABBA as well.

  Posted from Singapore

  

• ursus arctos |  December 11th, 2008 at 2:27 am

  
  
  

  As the father of a child who spent time in a German kindergarten, I can attest to the fact that Pippi Langstrumpf is still reasonably popular.

  The commercialisation of German stadium names, on the other hand, is a nefarious trend that old timers like me tend to ignore. The Waldstadion will always be the Waldstadion (just as the HSN Nordbank Arena will always be the Volksparkstadion and the Signal Iduna Park will always be the Westfalenstadion), even if it now has a fancy roof and all kinds of corporate amenities.

  And given the current state of the banking sector in Germany and beyond, it isn’t entirely clear how long the corporate names will in fact last. Anyone familiar with North American sports will have noticed the correlation between firms paying over the odds for naming rights and then going bust (just think of all of those cast iron Enron logos in the seats at the baseball stadium in Houston).

  Posted from Italy

  

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