Mick Beisenherz: On the Grass - Kick it like Cantona
- By Mick Beisenherz
- 2 Min.
Wealth found on the ground: Kick it like Cantona – Unearthed fortune awaits! - Fortune lies upon the grassy expanse.
Another attack, Nils comes from the right, I charge forward with him and shove past the opposition's defense. The ball comes flat, right to my feet. Perfect pass reception and a body feint that leaves the opponent dizzy. How did I do that? Perhaps it was the uneven grass that tripped me up before I took the shot.
Mick Beisenherz Kicked it on the "Knacki"
Welcome to the "Knacki," the lawn of the JVA Castrop-Rauxel, where we play regularly. Here we've got Malte, Onur, Vagesh, Norma, and Martin with his son Luis, who is 15 and improving week by week. The team is as diverse as a Benetton ad. If Boris Palmer saw this society, he'd ask, "What kind of society is this?" Despite the diversity, it's a group that works, and has for a long time.
Mick Beisenherz: Off duty here
My name is Mick Beisenherz. In Castrop-Rauxel, I'm a local celebrity. Elsewhere, I have to make my own way. I'm a jack of all trades - author, moderator, podcast host, occasional cartoonist. I see things that catch my eye, sometimes making me angry. The crosshairs are my religious symbol, the razor blade my dance floor, and I'm feeling it in my feet again.
Thirty years ago, we jumped fences to get on the lush lawn of the prison. That made us the only intruders. We played FIFA 1996 on the PlayStation and the original jerseys of Marcelo Salas, George Weah, Ronaldo, and even Mustafa Hadji, who was our teammate Aziz idolized. I wanted to be Eric Cantona. In London, I bought a VHS tape of his best moments for 30 pounds. We didn't have YouTube or TikTok back then, but MTV's Nike spots captivated us. We were on the brink of graduation or completing our apprenticeship, our lives were easy, and football brought us together.
The Incredible Scents of Fresh Grass
It still doesn't take much: a ball, a dozen people, and the incredible scents of fresh grass. Of the original founding members, only Andree and I are still part of the team, and now we have the legal right to play on the pitch with our true keys. We're as childishly enthusiastic and passionate as we were then, even laughing and joking openly - a classless society that shows only the blue-collar laborer in the changing room before the game, revealing something about each player's professional background.
What matters on the pitch - no matter how stressful the week or how annoying the day has been, in these 90 minutes, nothing else matters except what you do on the field. Every successful cross, every fine pass, a tackle, a goal - I take these moments to bed with me in the evening. Nowhere else do I think only about what I'm doing between the lines right now. I forget myself here, become someone else.
I'm 48 and hail from the Ruhr area. But right now, in this moment, I'm Thierry Henry. My friend Onur, with his flowing hair, is just Cucurella to everyone here. He managed to pull off the exact same offense two days after the Euro quarter-finals' legendary handball. It was laughed at and marveled at, just like my stumble before the goal. I may not be Thierry Henry or Eric Cantona, but here, on the Emscher with all my people on the pitch, I am: happy.
- Mick Beisenherz
- Football
- Happiness
In the team's diverse gathering on the "Knacki," where the scent of fresh grass permeates the air, Mick Beisenherz is not just a local celebrity, but also Thierry Henry for a brief moment. Despite the stress of the week or the annoyances of the day, nothing else matters on the football pitch, where he becomes someone else, losing himself in the game's thrill, a participant in the European leagues, albeit informally.
Mick Beisenherz, a jack of all trades, finds solace and joy in sports, particularly football, reminiscing about the pre-YouTube and TikTok era, when a VHS tape of Eric Cantona's moments was a treasured possession. In those 90 minutes, stressed by the week or troubled by the day, Mick embarks on a journey to Europe's elite leagues, sharing the field with his companions, even momentarily becoming the legendary Thierry Henry.
