'Football doesn't belong to you' – San Marino official takes aim at Thomas Muller

Thomas Muller won’t be heading back to San Marino for a holiday anytime soon.

The German forward laid into the football minnows, suggesting that their World Cup qualifier was “an unnecessary risk”, after cruising to an 8-0 win.

Bayern Munich chief Karl-Heinz Rummenigge also chipped in, saying “San Marino has got nothing to do with professional football.”

An 8-0 defeat they can take, but Alan Gasperoni, a member of the San Marino Olympic Committee, took grave offence to Muller’s comments and hit back in some style…

Dearest Thomas Muller,
You’re right. The games like that on a Friday night, they’re nothing. To you. On the other hand, dear Thomas, you do not need to come to San Marino for almost nothing in a weekend in which, without the Bundesliga, you could have spent with your wife on the sofa of you luxury villa or, who knows, you could have taken part in some events organised by your sponsors to bank several thousand euros. I believe you, but allow me to give 10 good reasons for which I think the San Marino-Germany match was very useful and if only you could could think about it and let me know what you think:

It served to show you that not even against the teams as poor as ours you can’t score a goal – and don’t say you weren’t pissed when Simoncini stopped you scoring…

It served to make it clear to your managers (and even at Beckenbauer and Rummenigge) that football is not owned by them but by all of those who love it, among which, like it or not, WE are included.

It served to remind hundreds of journalists from all over Europe that there are still guys who follow their dreams and not your rules.

It served to conform that you Germans you will never change and that history has taught you that “bullying” is not always guarantee of victory.

It served to show the 200 guys in San Marino who play the gamer for whatever reason why their coaches ask them to always work their hardest. Who knows – maybe one day all their sacrifice will not be repaid with a game against the champions of the world.

It served to your Federation (and also to ours) to collect money of image rights with which, in addition to paying you for your trouble, they can build pitches for the kids of your own country, schools and make football stadiums safer. Our Federation, I’ll let you in on a little secret, is building a new football pitch in a remote village called Acquaviva. You could build it with six months of your salary, we’ll do it with the rights of 90 minutes of game. Not bad right?

It served to a country as big as your pitch in Munich to go in the paper for a good reason, because a football match is always a good reason

It served to your friend Serge Gnabry to begin with in the national team and scoring three goals.

It made some Sanmarinese people a little happy to remember that we have a real national team.

It served to make me realise that even if you wear the most beautiful adidas kit, underneath you’re always the ones that put white socks under their sandals.