Sport has an ambivalent nature. On the one hand, it has always provided the most moving dramas and produced the greatest heroes. He brings people together, awakens emotions and can tell a host of inspiring life stories: Stories of ambition and determination, of the happiness of triumph, of how to deal with failure, of the struggle for social advancement and recognition. In Germany, football is king; elsewhere, Pele and Maradona are venerated like saints.

On the other hand, sport is a billion-dollar business, an advertising platform, a world of beautiful illusions that arouses desire. Politicians in particular like to be photographed with athletes. And the story of a Muhammad Ali, a Gerd Müller or a Boris Becker implicitly tells the story of a much larger number of people who have not made it in a world of pressure to perform and (self-) exploitation.