Somehow I find myself more excited about the game tonight then last year’s game. It is quiet odd-Barcelona and Manchester are two of my favorite teams and both embody everything beautiful about the game (this is what I have written before last year’s game: http://www.welt.de/wams_print/article3792355/Die-beste-und-schoenste-Spielzeit-der-Geschichte.html)

But even though Barcelona and Manchester are two of the most globalized sports teams, their game is almost provincial-they play their own version of football, they are well connected to the city where they play and as a result both teams are also grooming their own stars from within (through their youth teams).

The meeting tonight presents almost the opposite–two teams that are the mirror of globalization, of the destruction of borders in Europe and how in football there is no importance for the identity of the people who work for the firm.

Inter is coached by a Portugese mastermind and its lineup consists of 11 non-Italian players. Yet, after the team defeated Barcelona in the Semi-final, fans all over the world accused Inter of employing the Cattancio, the famous and boring Italian style.

Bayern, a proud team from the proudest region of Germany, is coached by a dutch, its captain is dutch and its three biggest stars are a Dutch, a French and a Croatian. Yet it managed to play to the standards of the greatest of German teams of the past: it doesn’t matter who you play against, it doesn’t matter if the opponent is better, or if it reinvented football (Hungary 54′ or Holland 74′). You play football 90 minutes and then the Germans win.