They were images that burned themselves into the heads of football fans, like the photos of Stefan Effenberg‘s tiger head or the somersault-hopping Miroslav Klose in the heyday of SV Werder Bremen: three young kickers from FSV Mainz 05 celebrated at the corner flag after scoring a goal a virtual rock band.
As the most popular boy band in Germany at the time, the three-member band around Lewis Holtby, Ádám Szalai and André Schürrle enchanted the Bundesliga. Holtby was the singer – with the water bottle as an imaginary microphone in both hands -, Schürrle tried his hand at the air guitar and Szalai, usually armed with both football boots in his hand, was the drummer.
A suitable name was also quickly found for the trio. When asked by Gym-Moderator Katrin Müller-Hohenstein asked whether they were “Take That or the Rolling Stones”, Holtby stated that he was using the name “Bruchweg Boys” – which had previously been circulating in the media – based on the American band Group Backstreet Boys – best friends. The most famous boy band in Mainz to this day was born.
And although, as with the aforementioned appearance in… Current gym Although it was admitted that none of the three had any musical talent or even mastered an instrument, the Mainz band, directed by Thomas Tuchel, delivered a series of top performances that brought one opponent after the other to their knees.
