Daniel Stendel: the German England fan bringing success to Barnsley

27 November 2018 10:00
Stendel, who has locked horns with Klopp as a player and Guardiola as a manager, has impressed with his positive styleAmong the hundreds watching the World Cup unfold on the big screen at The Garrison in Barnsley last summer was a German wearing an England shirt. Keen to acclimatise to his surroundings after swapping Lower Saxony for south Yorkshire, Daniel Stendel and his coaching staff soaked up the pub atmosphere somewhat incognito. “It was a good start for me,” Stendel says. “Once Germany were out, I wore my England shirt that I bought here. It was a really good experience with the people of Barnsley and everybody gave us lots of good wishes for the new season.”Oakwell is a long way from Frankfurt an der Oder, where Stendel was born. Until reunification in 1990, the Brandenburg town on the Polish border was in East Germany and the now 44-year-old learned Russian for nine years as a boy. “It was a picture that did not have so much colour,” he says. “It was more grey and black and white, and after the reunification you could travel to any country and buy everything. You could get to know a lot of other people and yeah, it was like going into a very surprising new world. But I cannot say the time before was a bad time. It was a nice childhood, I did not suffer and I have a lot of good memories.” Related: Football League: Boro and Leeds profit after Rotherham deny Blades Continue reading......read full article

Source: TheGuardian