Followers

Wednesday 8 August 2012

West Ham United - Local Swiss Boy Raphael Spiegel joins the team

West Ham United Stadium, Upton Park

As far as football is concerned (the english game – soccer in America) my dad was a West Ham United supporter, so I automatically also became one. Yes, my claret and blue heart beats for the “Hammers”. I was all the more surprised, and even pleased, to read in our local Swiss Newspaper the AZ Solothurner Zeitung (AZ Solothurn Newspaper) the following report.

I am translating and explaining as it is all in German.

The Headline of the article is “West Ham treasure my potential highly” and a photo of the 19 year old goal keeper Raphael Spiegel follows the headline, stating that this man is from Langendorf, a village where me and Mr. Swiss go to the local large supermarket for our shopping and only five minutes away by car from where we live.

It seems that Raphael Spiegel, who is a goalkeeper,  has made a large career jump and is changing from the Swiss football team Grasshoppers in Zürich (one of the best Swiss teams) to the West Ham United team in London. So I went on an exploring trip on Internet and found this link on the West Ham United site.


Raphael Spiegel footballer

Which saves me a lot of translating. There was an interview in our newspaper with him and it seems that it is quite positive that he actually has a three year contract.

One of the questions asked was how his english is. He said that he can understand quite a lot and can basically converse, but he is sure that he will soon learn the language. Another player Guy Demel is also in the West Ham team, who played for a while for Dortmund, and also speaks German, so he will have someone to converse with in the team. At the moment he is in England looking for somewhere to live. I wonder if he will find somewhere near where I grew up, who knows. West Ham is on the edge of the East End roughly speaking.He was also asked why he was not taking part in the West Ham United training camp in Germany, but because of the formalities that had to be settled, no time remained. However, this week he is training and playing with the second West Ham United team.

I would also mention that he played for the Swiss U17 team and is also in the narrow choice for the U20 team.

So I can only wish him the best of luck, and am pleased to see a local boy from my part of the woods in Switzerland who will be playing for my team.

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