Mehmet Scholl

The gentleman above is Mehmet Scholl, the ex-Bayern Munich and German international player.

Scholl is similar to his Scottish counterpart in that he likes to listen to some half decent tunes. I say half decent because unlike Nevin his selections are not the most eclectic or avant-guarde, but it is still stuff that you would hear on 6 Music.

Before we continue - Thank you Nick from Fisted Away for the scouting.

I’m not going to do a full bio on Scholl’s footballing career, but I will do a quick recap:
Mehmet Scholl is one of the most successful German football players of all time, during his career the attacking midfielder won eight German Championships with Bayern Munich, as well as the UEFA (Europa) Cup and the Champions League trophy. He was also part of the German national team which won Euro ’96.

It’s obviously the musical angle we are looking at and with a couple of mixtapes (compilation albums) in which Scholl was responsible for selecting the tracks.

From Wikipedia:

“In May 2002 and October 2003, he released two successful mixtapes, featuring his favourite bands. The compilation’s title “Mehmet Scholl kompiliert – Vor dem Spiel ist nach dem Spiel” is a reference to Sepp Herberger’s famous expression “nach dem Spiel ist vor dem Spiel” (“after the game is before the game”). In an interview, Scholl said he chose this title because he listens to this music before the game, after the game, in the car on the way to the stadium, and in the car when leaving the stadium.

The first volume includes songs by The Beta Band, Sportfreunde Stiller, Jimmy Eat World, and The Notwist among others. The second volume includes songs by Oasis, Wir sind Helden, and The Flaming Lips. Once a month, he co-presents the feature Mehmets Schollplatten in the program Nachtmix of the Bayern 2 radio station, which is the culturally oriented channel of the federal public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk.”

Since I’m doing the Summer Of Pod at the moment this discovery by Nick is perfect timing. I’ve chosen some (not all) tracks from each of the Scholl mixtapes for your listening pleasure:

Scholl Mixtape 1:

  1. The Beta Band – Dry The Rain
  2. The Chamberdeacons – The Sound Of Silence
  3. Stereophonics – Not Up To You
  4. Briskeby – Propaganda
  5. Peter Licht – Sonnedeck
  6. Jimmy Eat World – On A Sunday
  7. Placebo – Slave To The Wage
  8. Sportfreunde Stiller – Auf der guten Seite
  9. Seesaw – Smoke
  10. Commercial Breakup – Walking Back Home
  11. Maximilian Hecker – Polyester
  12. Tocotronic – Vier Geschichten von dir
  13. The Notwist – One With The Freaks
  14. Readymade – It Could Be Nice
  15. Liquido – Finally Fine
Scholl Mixtape 2:

  1. Eels – Feeling Fresh
  2. The Flaming Lips – Fight Test
  3. Oasis – The Masterplan
  4. Sportfreunde Stiller – Friday I’m In Love
  5. Slut – Easy To Love
  6. The Crash – Sugared
  7. Mercury Rev – Holes
  8. Teenage Fanclub – Verisimilitude
  9. Crackout – I Am The One
  10. Wir sind Helden – Guten Tag
  11. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Salvation
  12. Death In Vegas – Scorpio Rising
  13. The Charlatans – Just Lookin’
  14. Cake – Commissioning A Symphony in C
FootieAndMusic Podcast – Scholl Mixtape One:
» D/load   [58 mins long/file is 54mb]
FootieAndMusic Podcast – Scholl Mixtape Two:
» D/load   [58 mins long/file size is 54mb]

You can purchase these compilation albums over at amazon.de > Mixtape 1 & Mixtape 2.

…and there more…

Free: Played - Mehmet Scholl: Beyond the game
In 2007 there was a documentary made about the man. It’s called Frei:Gespielt – Mehmet Scholl: Über das Spiel hinaus (Free: Played – Mehmet Scholl: Beyond the game) and is a retrospective on his career.

There’s an accompanying soundtrack which by the looks Scholl also chose the tracks for this album. On there you can find Decemberists, Mazzy Star, Teenage Fanclub… It is still available at Amazon UK & Amazon USA.

…but that’s not all…

There’s one more band not included above but is a favourite of Mehmet’s. They played live at his farewell match (Bayern v Barcelona) plus he managed to convince them to wear the traditional leiderhosen as they performed at Scholl’s farewell dinner afterwards:

The band are called The Hidden Cameras [int w/lead singer] and I highly recommend you search out any or all of their releases. I didn’t know this band or anything about them until I saw the above clip, after this I had to go and find out more. They are just fantastic.
Nick from Fisted Away pointed me towards three videos of theirs: In The NA, Underage and The Little Bit.

I bought their 2006 album Awoo and this is the title track:

The Hidden Cameras
» The Hidden Cameras – Awoo

“The only things I’m afraid of is war and Oliver Kahn”   ~   Mehmet Scholl

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