The Testimonial Match

First off I must say that this post will bore the non-sports fan. Anyway, tonight, while watching TV, I witnessed another new concept in sports.
We’re still in Bavaria (southern Germany), where Bayern Munchen football is god. (Bavaria Munich soccer in English) Bayern Munchen is consistently one of the best clubs in the world and for the last several years has had Oli Kahn (aka King Kahn) guarding the net. One of the most famous and successful players in soccer history, he officially retired on May 27 of this year, at a match that drew 120,000 fans. Here comes the good part…King Kahn is so popular in these parts that they play what’s called a “testimonial match”, to showcase his illustrious career. He gets to take the field one last time in an exhibition game with his old team. The pregame started with all the choreographed dancers and pageantry like it was the Super Bowl. Then the two teams took the field except for Oli. A popular German rock band started playing at mid-field and then the guest of honor made his grand entrance. The opponent tonight was none other than the German National Squad, a team he tended net for in the 2006 World Cup (where he became the only goalkeeper in soccer history to win the World Cup Golden Ball trophy). Once the game finally got under way, he played for a predetermined 75 minutes (out of 90). But he doesn’t just come out of the game at that point, no-no-no. He draped himself in a Bayern Munchen flag and slowly walked around the perimeter of the field, waving to the capacity crowd of screaming and crying fans. All this while Paul Potts (the British American Idol winner) sings “It’s Time to Say Goodbye”, a famous opera ballad. The cameras then followed him back to the locker room as all eyes stayed riveted on the scoreboard television monitors, watching him remove his cleats for the last time. Luckily they gave him some privacy after that. Finally play resumed, and Oli Kahn’s career was officially immortalized. By the way, the match ended 1-1.
Maybe if the Packers would have scheduled a testimonial match this year, Brett Favre might have stayed retired.
You Tube is loaded with links, but check this one out if you’re interested (you'll need to copy and paste the address). At about the 2:30 mark, the music hits its first chorus of “It’s Time To Say Goodbye” and I can’t help but think of Favre circling the field in a Packer flag.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-dQv7Ek9NA