"Irving, St. Pauli's captain, oversees the club's quarter-league efforts in search of a gas bottle."
St. Pauli captain Jackson Irvine is currently recuperating from a foot injury on the Spanish island of Mallorca. The 32-year-old Australian midfielder sustained a microfracture in his left foot in April during a crucial win against Holstein Kiel (2:1), which forced him to undergo surgery in London. Despite his absence, St. Pauli managed to maintain their position in the league, ensuring a peaceful recovery for Irvine.
Irvine's leisure time on Mallorca has been spent with his wife Jemilla and friends, rather than dedicating himself to the local Real Club Deportivo. Instead, he has found involvement with a fourth-tier club from Saxony. Recent Instagram posts show Irvine engrossed in "While We Were Dreaming," the English translation of Clemens Meyer's debut novel "Als wir träumten." The story follows a group of friends in Leipzig during the transition period from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, focusing on their support for the twice DDR champion Chemie Leipzig.
While Meyer's novel has been considered one of the best explorations of youth culture in the waning days of the DDR and the subsequent "baseball bat years," there is no evidence to suggest that Irvine's holiday reading will result in a lifelong tribute to Chemie Leipzig, given his current tattoos and the club's recent struggles. Chemie narrowly avoided relegation to the Oberliga Nordost on the final matchday, while local rivals Lokomotive Leipzig won the Saxony Cup and are currently fighting for promotion to the third tier.
Irvine's holiday reading, a German novel titled "While We Were Dreaming," centering around a group of friends supporting the twice DDR champion Chemie Leipzig, seems unrelated to his upcoming return to professional football, given the Premier League and European-leagues he usually operates in. Despite his recent injuries, Irvine has shown interest in sports during his leisure time on Mallorca, as evidenced by his engagement with a fourth-tier club from Saxony, but not necessarily in European football leagues like the Premier League or football clubs like Real Club Deportivo.
