Bloomberg:
Brazilian soccer fans have turned a quiet spa town for Frankfurt bankers into Germany’s samba capital. Ronaldo, Kaka, Ronaldinho and the rest of the Brazil team set up camp this week in Koenigstein in the hills north of Germany’s financial center before defending their World Cup title. Organizers expect 10,000 fans to show up every day until the team leaves for a town near Cologne on June 18.
‘This is the best reception I’ve seen so far. Koenigstein has been touched by samba,’ said Valmor Neto, 38, a Brazil fan who flew 11 hours from São Paulo to follow the national squad. It’s his 3rd time at a World Cup.
For Brazil, the record 5-time World Cup winner with players at European soccer clubs such as AC Milan and Barcelona, limbering up in Koenigstein is just another day at the office. For the conservative German town, whose 16,000 inhabitants include Deutsche Bank AG executives and former Bundesbank President Hans Tietmeyer, the Brazilian invasion has got locals gyrating to music, quaffing caipirinha cocktails and making money. Koenigstein’s restaurants are packed with Portuguese speakers and the town’s central square has about 20 food and drink stands for the 12-day festival organized by the Town Hall with soccer competitions for kids and the ubiquitous dancing. Retailers have created their own logo for the event, a soccer ball trailing an arc of Brazilian yellow-and-green stripes as it blasts over the silhouette of the town’s 13th century castle. ‘The town’s almost getting something like a corporate identity,’ said Rainer Moeller, who owns the Classic Design jewelry store on Hauptstrasse, the main street, which is decked out in Brazilian flags and memorabilia.
Kiosk owner Petra Lauterwald said she expects a record year. She’s already sold all her soccer balls and fake Brazilian tattoos, the 43-year-old said in an interview. The town is spending 500,000 euros ($640,000) on parking, shuttle buses, public toilets and additional security, according to Thorsten Becker, who’s in charge of the event at the Town Hall. Road blocks limit access to the hamlet where the team is staying for the first 2 weeks of the World Cup, which starts tomorrow, disrupting business for some locals. Gas technician Ulrich Hofmann, 36, isn’t complaining. He decided to set up a sausage stand to cater to the Brazil fans. ‘I can’t do my regular work because they’ve cordoned off the whole town so I decided to start a second business,’ he said.
Marketing Tool
Brazil is ranked no. 1 by the FIFA World Soccer Association and rated tournament favorite by U.K. bookmaker William Hill Plc. It’s the only country to participate in every cup since the tournament’s inception in 1930. Brazil is the ‘most attractive’ team for sponsorship among the 32 nations at the World Cup, according to a survey by sports marketing company Global Sponsors. The tournament starts tomorrow and runs until July 9. Brazil’s first game, against Croatia, is on June 13.
Nike Inc., the athletic-shoe company whose logo is emblazoned on the Brazil’s World Cup uniforms this year, chose Koenigstein over Berlin to host the final of its Joga Bonito, 3-a-side, street soccer final the day the Brazilians arrived. The team chose Koenigstein both for the logistics and the luxury of the 5-star Kempinski Hotel, previously a convalescence home for soldiers opened in 1909. Frankfurt airport, Europe’s 3rd busiest, is a 20-minute car ride away and from where Brazil will travel to Berlin, Munich and Dortmund to play Croatia, Australia and Japan in the 1st group stage. Brazil may return to Koenigstein if the country makes the quarter finals, which start on June 30.
The Kempinski lobbied for more than 2 years to win the contract for Brazil’s World Cup team after a Brazilian delegation first visited in 2003, said director Cyrus Heydarian. ‘Samba is good for Koenigstein,’ Johann Reith, a 68-year- old pensioner from the town, said in an interview on June 6. ‘The Brazilians bring more life and exotic rhythms.’
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Menino Invade Campo
e Abraça �dolo Ronaldinho
Naomi Campbell
Promete Torcer Pelo Brasil
Gisele Bündchen Fala Sobre Futebol
e Suas RaÃzes Alemãs
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