Behind the scenes with Burki and Weidenfeller – The art of rising above social media trolls and giving the best!

Goalkeepers are often the favourite whipping child of the fans. Like Iker Casillas once said, “Being a good person is like a goalkeeper. No matter how many goals you save, people will always remember the ones you missed.”  And who knows it better than Borussia Dortmund keeper Roman Burki who has been in the eye of the storm on a couple of occasions for his bloopers on the field. 

In his inaugural season with the black and yellow, his performance came under the scanner when he was caught out spectacularly by Padderborn striker Srdjan Lakic, when the Swiss international tried to dribble his way out of danger. Fortunately for Burki, his teammates had a field day in the attacking third and they went on to win the match 7-1. 

After the match, Burki made a tongue-in-cheek comment on Instagram,” Geiles Spiel💪🏽 7 Tore geschossen⚽️ Ich eins vorbereitet 🙈 #dribbelkönig Danke Fans, für die überragende Unterstützung 👏🏽🙏🏽👍🏽👍🏽” (“Great game, seven goals scored, I assisted one #DribbleKing” Thank you fans for the outstanding support) 

The banter was taken in the right spirit by the BVB fans as the mistake had no impact on the result of the match and to Burki’s surprise, the Yellow Wall was chanting his name in solidarity, which was duly acknowledged by the keeper. 

But in December 2019, things took an ugly when the 30-year-old, in a league match against RB Leipzig, came out of his box and mistimed a headed clearance which allowed Timo Werner to score into an empty net. In the first half, he had made two outstanding saves to deny the Leipzig strikers but that was soon forgotten and after the match, the netizens vented out their anger across social media platforms. 

“I’m going to hate you for life! I hope you get bad diarrhoea!”

“The crappy goalkeeper will hopefully leave Dortmund!”

These were a couple of comments that followed after the match in his Instagram account. 

“I’m 30 now. I’ve gradually learned how to deal with it,” said Burki during an exclusive interview with DAZN.

But initially, it was not easy for him to deal with online abuse. He would take unnecessary pressure which further impacted his performance. 

“I wanted to show everyone what I’m capable of. I always wanted to be good.  Then you get messages like that and you think that everyone thinks the same way as the person writing the message. Over time you start to be able to deal with it,” he explained. 

His senior colleague and BVB legend, Roman Weidenfeller, did not have to go through the social media onslaught at the start of his career. However, during his final years at BVB, he joined Instagram and got a taste of what it is to face flak from online trolls. 

“Obviously you notice the odd comment or you read something. (However)It was all in moderation, though, so there was no hate mail or anything and I’ve always come out of it well so far,” he said with a sigh of relief.  

With changing times, most kids these days possess a cell phone and are heavy social media users. Marlon Zacharias, goalkeeper of BVB’s U16 team, reveals that he has a mobile since he was in fifth grade. He has close to 2000 followers on Instagram and regularly interacts with them, which is quite amusing to him. 

“I don’t want people to write to me without getting a reply. If anyone asks how I’m doing or something, then I answer normally. But if there are any insults or anything, I basically ignore it,” the teenager explained. 

In spite of the banes, social media also provides the footballers an avenue to earn some extra money through advertisements and other paid partnerships. A hefty chunk of money is credited every time they endorse a brand on their social media account, as it is an easy method to garner more eyeballs for product managers. 

“I also benefit from it and it’s just the way of the world nowadays. It’s important to note that advertising partners won’t turn to your social media accounts if you’re not leading the way with your performance. If you’re not producing on the pitch, you don’t get the opportunity to advertise,” stated Weidenfeller. 

The former German international also makes the most of it as an opportunity to interact directly with the fans and clarify anything if he thinks is wrongly put out by the media. 

At the same time, he believes that the current crop of players exposes themselves too much on social media, which sometimes affects their performance on the pitch. 

“It must also be said that they give away more. That’s to say, they put themselves out there a lot more. They have to justify themselves publicly even more. It’s no longer the case that footballers just go out on the pitch and play for 90minutes or are in training. I think that the emotions and also the togetherness disappear. To be honest, I think it’s almost absurd to look at your phone one minute before a game”. 

To further complicate matters, hackers are always on the lookout for celebrity profiles. It’s not only an easy way for making money but also a tool to get more brownie points in the hacking community. 

Burki’s profile was hacked while he was holidaying in Ibiza and since then he has been more careful in following people and setting a stronger password. 

“I asked the BVB staff for help. They then quickly sorted out a new password for me. After logging in,I noticed I was following accounts that I’d previously had no contact with. And also I changed my password to a fairly strong one.” 

To prevent the players from getting into such situations, BVB organises seminars where they are informed how to conduct themselves on social media. 

“The purpose of the seminars are obviously to make them more mature online. That means really informing them and we know from our experience what kinds of attacks take place. We want to share them and say: use the internet, use the technology, but use it in the right way so that you’re safe online,” stated Thorsten Urbanski, ESET IT-Security expert, who holds regular sessions with BVB players, especially with teenagers. 

It is noteworthy that the players are benefitting from it immensely as Yousoufa Moukoko, the young sensation of BVB, responded befittingly to racist slurs that were hurled at him during a match through an Instagram post. 

“He reacted extremely calmly, without consulting us, when everyone thought he’d react emotionally,” informed Lars Ricken, youth coordinator at Borussia Dortmund. 

However, if things go wrong the player can always get in touch with qualified persons who can help them. 

“We have teachers and psychologists, with whom the players can discuss things in private. Social media also invites you to think, so you don’t post anything out of emotion. You should think about it first. 

“Do I really want people to see that long-term? Do others even want to read that? Or am I compromising a teammate? If you’re still stuck, then there are enough people and experienced employees here, who you can go to and get advice,” said Ricken. 

Sometimes it becomes really difficult to reign the emotions and in a fit, we end up posting what we should not have. That impacts not only the image of the player but also of the club as they are representatives of BVB. 

Hence as Weidenfeller mentioned, ‘moderation’ is the key. One click can change a lot.