The Daily Bee (January 15th, 2018): The end of the road for Aubameyang?

• Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (1)

Let’s start at the beginning of this multilayered story.

First of all there are the racism-accusations against kicker-reporter Karlheinz Wild who used the word “Affenzirkus” in a sports talkshow to describe Aubameyang’s antics. The word which literally translates to “monkey circus” was picked up by Aubameyang and he obviously felt hurt by it upon googling the translation.

While I am no way excusing the word used by Wild and I can not possibly comment on Aubameyang’s feelings in this situation and can absolutely not comment on how he should feel or act, there are still a few explanations that are needed to make this situation maybe a bit clearer.

“Affenzirkus”, while it does translate to “monkey circus” is not used that way, the word actually means “madhouse” and is a fairly common German word, used to describe an unruly situation. The word technically has no racial insinuation and in all my years of speaking German I’ve never heard it in any racial context.

Sadly this seems to be a misunderstanding caused by a word that was lost in translation.

kicker has since then responded in an article saying: “It was never my (Karlheinz Wild) intention to hurt or discriminate the player and human Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. My intention was to solely describe his (Aubameyang’s) extravagances off the pitch with this common German expression that is not negatively afflicted.”

• Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (2)

Sadly this was not the only incident involving Aubameyang. The star striker got suspended from the Wolfsburg game because he missed a meeting on Saturday evening. The exact reason why he didn’t show up is not yet clear.

Dortmund have not yet commented on the length of the suspension but coach Peter Stöger was visibly angered by Auba’s antics, saying: “He claimed he forgot about the meeting but we know this isn’t true”. After the game Zorc added, “I don’t know what is going through his mind. I don’t recognize him anymore.”

Those are some damning statements and it looks like Auba is ready to force a move away from Dortmund and BVB might actually be willing to listen to offers this time around. Rumors about a 60€ million offer from Arsenal are already making the rounds as well as possible replacements for him like Giroud, Dolberg, Dembélé and Batshuayi just to name a few.

These rumors will probably be prevalent in the next few days and weeks so prepare for even more chapters in the neverending Aubameyang-story.