Tonight will see Chicago Fire and former Manchester United and Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger throw out the Ceremonial First Pitch at Wrigley Field. Schweinsteiger has already made public appearances at both the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, and Tuesday brings the Captain of the 2014 German World Cup Champion a hero’s welcome for the Chicago Cubs vs. Philadelphia Phillies game.
Schweinsteiger will then join teammates Drew Conner and Dax McCarty to lead Cubs fans in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the 7th inning stretch.
“You have a very good baseball team,” Schweinsteiger said at his Chicago Fire introductory press conference. “And a good ice hockey team as well.
In Germany, Schweinsteiger is right up there with “Der Kaiser” Franz Beckenbauer amongst the top tier of legendary soccer players. His national team and club glory in Bundesliga with Bayern make him an iconic superstar in Europe. In countries all around the world where soccer is king, Schweinsteiger is a heavyweight brand name.
He’s obviously nowhere near as famous in America, but give him time and you will probably see his Q rating rise.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/859611703969030144
His move to Chicago coincides with the Fire hosting the Major League Soccer All-star Game (at Soldier Field) on August 2nd, and that should be another opportunity to see his already large worldwide fan base further expand.
Already, he might be the biggest name in Chicago sports. Check out an excerpt in this LONG form by Rich Campbell in the Chicago Tribune
His Twitter account, for example, has 4.05 million followers, ranking 998th in the world, according to TwitterCounter.com. That’s 1.5 million more followers than all the Bears players’ accounts combined. It’s almost 2 million more than the accounts of Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews combined. Wade, with 6.6 million, is the only active Chicago athlete with a greater following.
Through Schweinsteiger’s first two weeks with the Fire, the club reported 2.5 billion impressions worldwide from all the media coverage and team-produced content about the acquisition.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/858013543693791234
When you consider those numbers, it perfectly reflects the very warm reception he received when he arrived at O’hare international airport in March to complete the transfer from Manchester United.
Bastian Schweinsteiger also comprises half of a sports power couple, as his wife is Ana lvanovic, the 2008 French Open champion who just retired from tennis in December.
It will be fun and interesting to see the reception Schweinsteiger and his wife experience at the Cubs game tonight.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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