`Gastarbeiter' may win match and acceptance

Whenthe German soccer team plays Malta in Valletta tomorrow evening, most eyes will be on a young defender called Mustafa Dogan who is making his debut with the squad. After a poor performance in the World Cup this year, the German team is in urgent need of young blood and Dogan is one of a number of new players.

But, as the son of a Turkish Gastarbeiter, he also represents an experiment that could not only change the face of German football but of society itself.

"We have a multi-cultural society in Germany. Why shouldn't we give these people a chance?" asked Germany's trainer Berti Vogts before the team flew out to Malta yesterday.

Although Dogan plays for the Turkish club Fenerbahce Istanbul, he carries a German passport, making him eligible to play on the national team. Few of Germany's two million Turks are in a similar position, chiefly on account of Germany's antiquated citizenship law.

The 85-year-old law defines nationality according to bloodlines rather than birthplace. This means that second- and third-generation Turks are denied citizenship, while descendants of Germans who settled in Russia or Romania centuries ago are entitled automatically to a passport.

The law requires new citizens to give up their old allegiance. But many foreigners are reluctant to sever ties with their country of origin, not least because of fear they would not be accepted fully into German society.

Many second- and third-generation children of foreigners who were born in Germany and speak perfect German are unable to work as doctors, civil servants or even chimneysweeps because they are not citizens.

Dogan's passport was not enough to convince the popular press that he was sufficiently German to represent the nation on the football field. So he was obliged to explain that he grew up in the industrial city of Duisburg, served in the Bundeswehr and prefers German yoghurt to the Turkish variety.

Berti Vogts and his colleagues in the DFB, Germany's football federation, want the law changed to allow dual citizenship for the children of immigrants. All Germany's opposition parties agree but Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats are resisting change.

Some of Dr Kohl's colleagues even want to tighten the law to deny a passport to anyone who fails to pass a German language test.

Vogts, whose own relationship with German grammar is somewhat relaxed, has little interest in politics but he is desperate to improve Germany's football performance and save his own job.

For tomorrow's match, he has also drafted in Paulo Rink, a Brazilian with a German grandfather, and the Swiss-born Oliver Neuville, whose father was German.

Most of Germany's junior teams are dominated by Turkish, Italian and Yugoslavian players, few of whom are German citizens.

"We are dispensing with 50 per cent of our up and coming talent," laments Ottmar Hitzfeld, trainer at Bayern Munich.

For many children of Turkish immigrants, football represents one of the few opportunities to be accepted by Germans and treated equally. Most speak better German than Turkish and few feel comfortable when they visit their parents' homeland.

Liberals hope that the example of Dogan and a change in the citizenship law will encourage other talented players from immigrant families to join the national squad. Many point to the example of France, where players of foreign origin performed a crucial role in winning the World Cup this year and thus helped the process of integration.

Germany has much farther to go in acknowledging the multicultural nature of its society, and many Germans regard their soccer team as a national symbol second only to the deutschmark in its totemic power.

Some will feel uncomfortable if players called Mustafa, Ali and Mohammed drive out the Juergens, Stefans and Horsts. But many will swallow their ethnic pride if new blood, however mixed, brings success to a tired team.

As Vogts points out, Germany's recent record on the football pitch means that gifted young players often prefer to play for their parents' country.

"Much of the young talent is not terribly excited by the prospect of being able to play for the German national team," he said.