Chancellor Angela Merkel, a keen football fan, will travel to South Africa to cheer on Germany in their crunch World Cup quarter-final encounter with Argentina, the government press office said Tuesday.
A spokesman for the German Football Federation confirmed Merkel’s travel plans.
‘She’ll be in the stadium,’ Federation media director Harald Stengler said. ‘We’re happy that she’s coming. She’ll be a good-luck charm for us.’
A regular in the stands when Germany plays, Merkel said in a recent interview she was “definitely” a bigger football fan than her husband, scientist Joachim Sauer.
Her passion for the beautiful game got the better of her concerns over the global economic crisis at the recent G20 meeting when she decamped to watch Germany beat England 4-1 in the company of Prime Minister David Cameron.
Since Germany hosted the last World Cup in 2006, the chancellor has attended a host of matches, both domestic and international, and travelled to Vienna to watch the Euro 2008 final, to watch Germany lose 1-0 to Spain.
Germany will face Argentina at the Green Point stadium in Cape Town Saturday for a berth in the semi-finals.
